Investing in stocks and shares has proved to be one of the most enduring of guides to investment in stockmarkets since it was firs published in 1992.This may be because it is maintained by a professional long-term investor and notby a financial journalist or a salesman pedding a ’get-rich-quick’ book;or it may be due to the book’sadvocacy from the first edition of the importance of seeking dividend growth from investments in shares,and not buckling to the latest investment fashion.The beliefs expressed in the first edition,that share prices would rise more than alternative investments and that the ’logical investment strategy’ would have a long term application.However,the decline in global inflation has lowered expectations of returns from all types of investment.Gilts and house prices haveenjoyed a good run in the last three years,but this cannot continue unless inflation(and thence interest rates) falls even further.andeed,it is economically impossible for sockmarkets and house prices to move in opposite directions for any length of time,since both are ultimately driven by company profits via dividens or wages.Although expectaions of future returns from the stockmarket must be lower than those garnered rom the past two decades,there is every reason to suppose that investment in company shares xill continue to out-platform other investments in the next few years.