Anyone considering a tracker bond investment should probably hold off until the end of this month when more come on the market, according to Mr Douglas Farrell of the Tracker Bond Information Service (1-800-322422), a subsidiary of National Deposit Brokers.

"There are at least seven new trackers being launched or about to be in the next couple of weeks and if investors want the widest choice, they should wait and see what becomes available.

"We do know, however, that the market is breaking down into trackers with mainly European and US-linked indexes and those with a fairly high exposure to Japan. Those investors who want to stay away from Japan will at least have a choice; in the recent past a lot of trackers had a weighting in Japan and many people were not comfortable with that."