Virtually all stock market investors will want to put 2008 behind them.

Anyone who has seen the value of their portfolio rise over the last 12 months has either been exceptionally shrewd or very, very lucky.

Most people have suffered severe losses on paper and there have been no hiding places. Smaller companies have seen their share prices slashed but equally blue chips such as banks and property companies now stand at a fraction of where they once were.

It is human nature to continue to ponder over what has happened in the past and people will hopefully learn from some of the mistakes made, but in terms of aiming for wealth creation, one now has to look forward.

It is very difficult to predict where share prices will broadly head during 2009. At the time of writing, the FTSE 100 looks certain to end the year having recovered strongly from its low of 3,734 in November, but we are still very much in bear market territory. It seems inevitable that the UK economy is in for a tough time over the next year and a recent FT/Harris poll found that 38 per cent of people believe the economy could be contracting for more than two years. However, share prices tend to recover before the economy comes out of recession, so if Chancellor Alistair Darling is correct in his expectation that the economy will return to growth in the second half of 2009, then share prices could be on the rise in the not-too-distant future.

To summarise, it would take a very brave person to make a firm prediction on where the stock market is heading over the next 12 months.

In the near future news on how the retailers have performed over the key festive period will come under close scrutiny.

Hot on the heels of that information will be a flood of results, including figures from the major banks. These will not make pleasant reading, but, having said that, expectations have been reduced to reflect the tough time many businesses have been facing. There is potential for further movement on interest rates both in the UK and overseas as well as changes in the strength of Sterling and possibly volatile commodity prices. Taking all this into consideration, there are still some interesting times ahead.