Our content this month are as follows:-

• Index Win National Adviser of the Year
• The Christmas Quiz - The Answers
• Books We Have Read
• Business Information
• Quote of the Month

Citywire, the respected city fund analyst, surveyed the 12,000 independent financial advisory firms in the UK and interviewed 250. Index was one of these 250 and we were invited to a discussion day in London, followed by an awards dinner at Billingsgate.

On the appointed day, Wednesday 18th of January, Les went along to represent us and enjoyed presentations from leading industry figures and lively discussions following these presentations. It became clear during the day that our business model, embracing fee charging and globally diversified portfolios is now being promoted as the way ahead for serious financial advisors. Despite this, we knew we were up against very stiff competition, including many National firms and were hopeful rather than confident. However we collected the prize for the Midlands region and then, to our delight, we were awarded the national prize.

The award is a huge endorsement of our approach and methodology and it was interesting to note that virtually all of the firms in the room aspire to doing things the way we do. We would like to thank our staff for their hard work in helping us to get to this position and for coping with all the change admirably.

We would of course most particularly like to thank you, our clients, for your faith in us and your receptiveness to our message; without you there could be no business and we continue to appreciate your confidence in us.
Clicking on this link will take you to Citywire's website, where you can briefly read about our win and we will is shortly be sending out a copy of the magazine article making the announcement. We expect a good deal of press coverage so look out for it!

www.citywire.co.uk/Awards/NewModelAdviserof2006

The quiz obviously proved more difficult than we expected and lots of entries scored very low (we are naming no names!) The best entry by far came from Ruth Coles and we will be sending a case of champagne to her very shortly.
The judges have made a purely arbitrary and discretionary decision to award no further prizes and will donate the money instead to Macmillan Cancer relief in support of Noel's Mexican bike ride next month.

The answers are in the attached Word document.

In our own field, those who make predictions in the areas of stockpicking and market timing invariably come unstuck. "The Experts Speak and Get It Wrong!" by Christopher Cerf and Victor Navasky demonstrates that the inability of experts to predict the future is not confined to the world of finance. Consider the following;

"Space travel is utter bilge" - Dr Richard van der Riet Wooley, British astronomer Royal, January 1956. (Two years later the Russians launched Sputnik 1).

"I do not think that the flight across the Atlantic will be made in our time, and in our time I include the youngest readers." - Charles Stewart Rolls (co-founder of Rolls-Royce Ltd) 1908.

"For God's sake go down to reception and get rid of a lunatic who is down there. He says he's got a machine for seeing by wireless! Watch him - he may have a razor on him." - Editor of the Daily Express refusing to see John Logie Baird, the inventor of television, 1925.

Hundreds of quotes like these confirm our belief that predictions can be fun but there is no substitute for sensible planning.

The book is available from Amazon.co.uk and if you have any trouble obtaining it please contact Jayne@indexfundadvisors.co.uk

Remember - if you want to profile your business in this section simply contact Jayne Vale, who will make the arrangements.

"The results of this study are not good news for investors who purchase actively managed mutual funds. No investment style generates positive abnormal returns over the 1965-1998 sample period. The sample includes 4,686 funds covering 26,564 fund-years."

- Davis, James L.
Mutual Fund Performance and Manager Style, Financial Analysts Journal 57 (2001): 19-27