Take part in our great Share Challenge and win £100 cash

This month's £100 cash prize winner of the Save & Spend Reader Investment Challenge is Tom Bennison, of Camborne, Cornwall. The 23-year-old marketing executive, who describes himself as a surfer-turned-stockpicker, pocketed profits of more than 12 per cent in just four weeks.

The competition is a simple share-picking contest. Each month, the reader who correctly identifies the best performing shares on the London Stock Exchange over the subsequent four weeks wins the prize.

Among Tom's top picks for December were clothing retailer Next (where the shares were up 12 per cent) and research company Taylor Nelson (up 15 per cent).

"After taking an interest in the stock market, I thought I'd try the Share Challenge to get to know it better before investing real money," says Tom.

Now it's your chance to compete against the Share Challenge teams and other readers from around the globe with your own virtual share portfolio.

Save & Spend has teamed up with Abbey Sharedealing, the virtual trading website Bullbearings, and online investment portal DigitalLook to offer two more rounds of the Reader Challenge, with £100 cash prizes going to the readers who can rack up the most profits in four weeks of trading.

The contest is completely free and there are none of the risks of the real stock market because the game is played with virtual cash. It's a great way to learn more about investing - with the chance of winning real cash prizes to boot.

Don't miss the opportunity to take part in Round Eight of the contest. Log on to www.bullbearings.co.uk and register to play before 26 January. Choose the five shares you think are likely to increase by the largest amount over the next four weeks.

We'll announce the reader who scored the highest profits on Saturday, 10 March, and launch the next round with another £100 cash prize.

Meanwhile, the three investment teams taking part in The Independent's year-long Share Challenge have less than three months to go to the finishing line.

We'll have an update on whether the professional fund manager can beat the amateur investment club and the schoolchildren next month.

For real-time share price updates, and to see whether you're winning, log on to www.bullbearings.co.uk/independent.