Mr Wootten says Hill House Hammond and Hexagon give consistently good value.CAR INSURANCE PREMIUMSDriver aged 40, max no claims, driving Rover 216 Si, 1600ccLow risk area (Hampshire) £ Higher risk (Wandsworth) £Best quote: Sun Alliance Direct 173.54 Best quote: Admiral 256.252nd: Preferred Direct 187.53 2nd: Guardian Direct 266.693rd: Churchill 193.00 3rd: Preferred Direct 270.344th: Guardian Direct 196.77* 4th: Royal Direct 277.87Best broker's quote 202.95 Best Broker's Quote 297.00Worst direct quote 245.65 Worst direct quote: 433.62* protected bonus Source: Insurance Selection, tel 0171 639 9734. Consumers can either call Insurance Selection to find the cheapest policy, or ring round as many of the directs as possible themselves. Insurance Selection charges customers 25 per cent of the savings made on their last year's premium, an average fee of £20.50. Young drivers, certain professions, high-performance cars and those with bad records often get poorer quotes from the directs.The exception to this practice is Privilege, the high-risk branch of Direct Line, which Mr Wootten says offers best prices in 40 per cent of cases.Getting the best deal from a direct insurer is not always straightforward. This time last year the figure was 52 per cent.The shift reflects the increasingly harsh competition for market share, with direct sellers grabbing an extra 10 per cent of the market last year, and the aggressive challenge of the direct arm of composite insurers such as Guardian, Sun Alliance and Legal & General.Brokers remain competitive mainly for non-standard risks. It holds the premium rates of over 90 per cent of the UK's car insurance policies - including those from direct sellers such as Direct Line and Admiral, as well as brokerssuch as the AA and Swinton. Mr Wootten currently selects a direct insurer in 90 per cent of cases.

Nine out of ten car owners are better off with insurance from direct sellers, says James Wootten, director of Insurance Selection. This company is an independent telephone service that advises customers on cheapest car insurance deals. The percentage return on the underlying shares would have been considerably less at 18.6 per centInvestors can also profit from an expected share price fall by purchasing put options which can be used to protect the value of share holdings from expected falls by matching the underlying holding with the required number of options.. It may rise to say 45p a share, giving the investor a profit of £300 on the £150 outlay, a return of 200 per cent. The contract for 1,000 shares would cost £150 and give the investor the right to buy 1,000 Hanson shares at 240p until expiry date on 15 November.If, as the investor expects, Hanson's share price rises to say 280p then the call option will also rise, largely reflecting the 40p premium.

Alternatively, the investor could buy a November 24 call option for 15p.a share. And unlike the underlying shares, options allow an investor to profit from price falls as well as price rises.The London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange lists 11 member stockbroking firms prepared to deal in options for private clients Albert E Sharp, has 180 private clients registered to deal. "They tend to be people who already have a full range of the usual investments,'' said Carl Beckley, associate director, derivatives.Options are available on a wide range of products including individual shares - equity options - and stock market indices, or index options. By giving the investor the right to buy or sell shares for a fraction of the price of the underlying shares, options offer varied investment strategies from pure speculation to insuring a portfolio's value.Very simply, options give the holder the right to buy or sell a product at a fixed price within a set time limit.