Back in November I spotted that the FTSE had started to fluctuate around a mean of 4,200. In January I launched my personal FTSE 100 Confidence Project investing £1,000 in a FTSE tracker. I’ve used it as a mechanism to comment on the market in the intervening period.

• Saving for a rainy day: FTSE Confidence Project shows 10% profit in four months, 9 May
• Green shoots: update on the FTSE 100 confidence project, 4 April
• Reasons to be cheerful: green lights, FTSE £1k confidence project update, and lessons from a motivational speaker, 25 February
• In search of M&A opportunity in tech, media and telecoms, 30 January

Today I’ve banked £223 on my original investment. That’s 22 per cent growth in nine months. Equities have outperformed almost every other asset class during the last nine months.

Both Adam Parker and David Brain were quick to point out on Twitter that the FTSE 100 has been rubbish during the last years and that it is no higher than it was in 1994.

They are both absolutely spot on which is why if you are going to invest in equities you have to take a proactive approach and have a disciplined stop loss position.

This is why I’m now going to close my project and pull out my investment. To hope for further returns in a short period would be pushing my luck and I believe that the market is close to a normalised position.

If you think differently I would love to hear your views.

The market fell further to a low of 3,800 but has since climbed to 4,400 (FTSE 100 close 4,462 – 8 May). My £1,000 investment has grown to almost £1,105. Ten per cent growth is a cracking return in less than four months. I’m going to pull out the profit and save it for a rainy day. It could be a false dawn after all.

We’re seeing all the signs of a long, snakey and W-shaped recession. Bad news continues to arrive daily. UK manufacturing was hit further yesterday with news that Corus is likely to close its Teesside steelmaking plant with the loss of 2,000 jobs.

The recession was driven by a collapse in the credit markets. But there can be no doubt that the economy is recalibrating. A key report from the US Treasury this week showed that the US banking sector was slowly getting back on its feet and the Bank of England’s quantitative easing strategy appears to be having the desired impact in the UK.

Chancellor Alistair Darling’s strategy of increasing public spending to bolster the economy is a blunt instrument but its working. He’s unlikely to get any thanks of course because at some point spending will have to be cut back dramatically or taxes increased.

Increased public spending has to be funded through debt because we didn’t build up reserves during the years of growth. Prime Minister Gordon Brown wasn’t as prudent as he likes to claim. We didn’t put anything away for a rainy day.