I ’m going to don the robes of penitence and pronounce a mea culpa on some of my ideas of the past year – as well as pointing out some that I think still have “legs” for 2009. But first, those big mistakes.

Clearly, my enthusiasm for frontier markets was misplaced and if you’d followed my advice and invested in the likes of Lonrho or Lonzim or JSM Indochina you’d now be a less brave adventurous investor. Change in Zimbabwe is still going to take time and the shares of Lonzim and Mwana Africa have collapsed. At some point, this could become the greatest investment story on earth. For now, it’s a humanitarian disaster.