Had he been an investment banker, the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche might have said: “Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torments of markets”. As the early hopes that the credit crisis would turn out to be little more than a brief distraction give way to realism, bankers and investors are bracing themselves for a miserable second half of the year.

Financial News, which this week gives its half-year report on how 2008 is progressing, offers a useful guide to 10 indicators – some serious, some less so – that might show when the worst is over and that the prospects of recovery might be based on something more tangible than hope.