If you had purchased £1000 of Northern Rock shares one year ago it would now be worth £4.95.

With HBOS, earlier this week your £1000 would have been worth £16.50.

£1000 invested in XL Leisure would now be worth less than £5.

But if you had bought £1000 worth of Lager one year ago, drank it all, then took the empty cans to an aluminum re-cycling plant, you would get £214