More crystal-gazing. For the past couple of years parallel polls have thrown up sharp differences between the expectations of City fund managers handling hefty lumps of collective money and independent financial advisers seeking a result that pleases their individual private clients.

This time there is a broad consensus that 2007 should be another good year for investors. Some 74 per cent of fund managers polled by the Association of Investment Companies think markets generally are heading higher next year. So do 78 per cent of advisers replying to their lobby group, IFA Promotions. That actually makes the IFA's less bullish than last year when 92 per cent expected markets to rise.

The main difference now is that IFAs are much more property minded - possibly because their clients are, and few investment companies bother with property at all. More than a quarter of the IFAs think property will beat other forms of investment, boosted, perhaps by the arrival of tax-privileged real estate investment trusts next month. Not a single fund manager agrees.

As to stock markets, the IFAs plump heavily for emerging markets, while the fund managers look to this year's great disappointment, Japan.

It is not that either category thinks anything particularly dreadful is going to happen at home. They just see better prospects elsewhere.

Some 42 per cent of the IFAs and 43 per cent of the managers think the 100-share Footsie will finish 2007 between 6,500 and 7,000, a modest ambition against last night's close of 6203.9. Only seven per cent of both groups are looking for anything over 7,000.

There are more pessimists among the fund managers. Nearly a quarter think the Footsie will go backwards next year - one glum individual predicts it will slide down below 3,000. Against that, only ten per cent of the IFAs fear any fall at all. There is an overwhelming consensus that rising corporate profits, strong balance sheets, a continuing stream of bids and deals, along with opportunities in the Far East provide the greatest cause for optimism. There is also widespread confidence, too, that inflation is under control.

Potential threats to this rosy scenario attract less agreement. Rising interest rates loom largest among fund managers' fears, followed by slower economic growth. Terrorism tops the list for IFAs, narrowly ahead of interest rates. But 18 per cent of them worry most about "lack of consumer spending".

There is little sign of nerves in either camp about the much hyped mountain of household debt, nor recent warnings that a lot of the loans piled into companies owned by private equity outfits could turn bad. Nobody at all mentioned hedge funds, their increasing herd behaviour and the consequences if they all make the same mistake.

But then nobody has done a poll of hedge fund managers.

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