The uncertainty about whether world stock markets can continue to surge ahead has prompted the stockbrokers BCP to bring out what it calls the Bull & Bear Bond, a tracker that offers a potential pay-back whether the stock market indices rise or fall in value.

The price for this each-way bet is that the company will only guarantee that 90 per cent of your capital will be returned at the end of the investment period. In order to explain the options better, BCP has provided examples of how these bonds work. In the case of the bear option, BCP assumes a £10,000 investment, twice the required minimum. If, for example, there is an 80 per cent rise in the three indices being tracked - the S&P 500 (25 per cent), a Euro index made up of the FTSE100 (10 per cent), CAC (10 per cent), SMI (10 per cent) and DAX (5 per cent) and the Japanese Nikkei 300 (40 per cent), investors will receive 1.5 times this growth or 120 per cent. Since only £9,000 of your capital is guaranteed to be returned, the profit works out at £12,000 or a total return of £21,000. DIRT at 26 per cent works out at £2,860 and your net profit is £8,140 on your initial investment of £10,000. The total net percentage growth is 81.4 per cent.

You need a minimum of £5,000 with which to buy into this bond which also requires nearly six years of commitment: independent financial advisers state that investors should be aware that their capital is clearly at risk if they encash early.