If you'd invested in: Intertek and Countrywide

If only

Intertek (LSE: ITRK) inspects and certifies products for safety. So far this year it has seen its shares rise by 55%. In August it announced that sales had jumped by 13.2% during January-June, to £1.37bn. Meanwhile, acquisitions, such as Germany's KJ Tech Services earlier this year, provide opportunities to build sales and margins further. The company is expected to generate earnings growth of 11% and 7% in 2017 and 2018 respectively.

Be glad you didn't

Countrywide (LSE: CWD) is the biggest listed estate agency in Britain. In November it said that revenue was down 7% to £175m in the quarter to the end of September compared with the same period last year. In the first half of the financial year it also saw a 98% collapse in pre-tax profits, falling to £477,000 from £24.2m a year earlier. Its shares are now down by 28% in the year to date, and it dropped out of the FTSE 250 in December last year.

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Alice grew up in Stockholm and studied at the University of the Arts London, where she gained a first-class BA in Journalism. She has written for several publications in Stockholm and London, and joined MoneyWeek in 2017.

Alice is now Consumer Editor at The Sun and covers everything from energy bills to Social Security.