In the middle of October three years ago – in the same week as the 2007 Financial News Awards for Excellence in European Institutional Asset Management – the FTSE 100 reached what turned out to be the peak of a four-and-a half-year trend of steadily rising 16% a year.

Over the next 18 months, to March 2009, it fell 48%. Then it rose 65%, until April this year. Now, after another sharp dip and rise, it is about the same level as it was six months ago.