I love these newspaper share contests for a laugh. Winner at the moment is the dartboard which has seen a notional $100,000 invested in 10 stocks increase to $106k over the last two weeks. Second is a chartist ($104k) 3rd place goes to an astrologer (God help us). 4th a journalist. 5th the host of The Price is Right . 6th a ?primary school student. 7th Fat Prophets which is up $583-00. 8th a business guy (up $577). 9th a financial planner (up $344 but no doubt would have charged a client $1500 to do a investment profile on them) and in last place DirectPortfolio which has lost just under $100. Based on this you're better off with a dartboard than a financial planner (and you don't have to spend the $1500 odd to have them 'assess' your investment style).