If there’s a single quality of which more is needed when it comes to surviving in the stock market, it’s scepticism. With greater scepticism comes the need to question, to know more and not take things at face value. It’s a valuable commodity in an age when many in the financial world are constantly devising new schemes to generate business, some of which may be rewarding to investors but many of which - as was starkly illustrated in the cases of the failed Lehman Minibonds and the troubled S-chip sector - may lead to losses later.