While you cannot cash in a bond for its redeemable value before the repayment date, it can still be sold on the stockmarket. It becomes a "tradeable security".Interest paid on gilts is known as a "coupon" It is fixed for the life of a gilt. The coupon, usually paid twice a year, depends on whatever rates of interest are in place at any moment, plus the borrower's financial strength. A few gilts, known as "irredeemables" are undated.Gilts with less than five years left to run are called "shorts", those with five to 15 years left are called "mediums", those with more than 15 years are known as "longs". At the end of that life - which could be just a few years or up to 30 years away - the original capital will be repaid by the company or official body which had borrowed it.

In essence, they are "loans" of capital by the investor to a private company, the Government, or some other official body. Bond owners will receive regular interest on their savings, plus the repayment of the original investment. Unlike a typical building society account, the rate of interest of a bond is fixed at the outset, guaranteeing a certain level of income.Most bonds will have a fixed life, particularly Government bonds, or "gilts". Rather than punt their cash directly into equities, they are seeking alternatives that will provide higher returns than from a building society account, but without too much risk Bonds can be part of a low-risk investment strategy. The cautious investor can dip into the equity market without losing too much sleep," she says.. STOCKMARKET VOLATILITY, such as we have seen in recent months, makes investors wary. Anyone with pounds 5,000 in deposit-based investments could commit pounds 500 to a high-yield unit trust."For example, Marie Thorne, a Whitechurch Securities client, had a pounds 60,000 portfolio to invest The vast majority went into safe, steady-Eddie funds. "It's wacky, but people get into this euphoria about the stockmarket," says Mr Kohn.The issue, then, is not whether we should accept vast level of risk with our money - large numbers of us already do so, albeit we are unaware of it.

The key test is how much of our money should we be prepared to put at risk and what areas should we target with this money?As Tim Cockerill, managing director at independent advisers Whitechurch Securities, also in Bristol, says: "You don't have to be rich, you just have to know what you're doing and not over-commit yourself. Though around 12 million people in the UK own shares, according to Pro-Share, an organisation promoting share ownership, but nearly half of them only hold the shares of one company.Seventy-four per cent are only marginally more diversified, holding shares in up to three companies. "But individual shares go off that scale," Mr Kohn says.By these criteria, about eight million people in this country hold investments which are off the Kohn Cougar risk scale. Kohn Cougar applies its own system of risk ratings to investments, ranging from nought for cash deposits and similar virtually risk-free investments, to 10 for funds investing in the economies of Russia and emerging markets. Roddy Kohn of independent financial advisers Kohn Cougar, based in Bristol, says people in general do not really know what investment risk is."They perceive the shares of Marks & Spencer to be low risk, but the shares have fallen about 40 per cent within the last year," he says. It did, and Mr Soros pocketed $1bn.Paradoxically, despite saying they they would prefer to play safe, millions of investors do take on "unacceptable" levels of risk. Ask George Soros: he gambled against sterling in 1992, selling huge amounts of the UK currency and buying the German mark instead.

He bet on the pound tumbling out of the European exchange rate mechanism. That may explain why traditional building society or bank accounts are by far the most popular means of saving money in the UK. Yet we all know taking a risk can be tremendously exciting - be that in various sporting endeavours, or even gambling in the National Lottery. If taking a risk is the way to get rich, how much chance do we stand? Most of us, most of the time, would say that we are unwilling to accept high levels of risk with our money, particularly if the consequence of doing so means losing our shirts. Unlike some other women Virtue candidates, she refuses to take off her headscarf, but if she is elected, there is no guarantee she will be allowed to wear her headscarf in parliament."Fifty-four per cent of thepopulation is women, and half of them wear the headscarf," she protests "They need to be represented in parliament All anybody wants to talk about is the headscarf It's what's inside your head that counts.". The party is taking advantage of parliamentary chaos caused by a a group of maverick MPs who are trying to cancel the elections.Virtue said yesterday it was committed to April polls, but despite this, its opponents say that behind moderates like Ms Kavakei lurk Welfare's hardline personalities and policies.Ms Kavakei has already whipped up a controversy of her own.

Necmettin Erbakan was prime minister when the Islamists were forced out and he was banned from politics for five years.Now Virtue is trying to push a change in the law through parliament so Mr Erbakan and other convicted Islamists can be pardoned. Virtue's MPs are trying to pave the way for the return of their leader. "They say they're committed to human rights, but the only rights they're talking about are freedom of religious expression," says Professor Ali Carkoglu, of Istanbul's Bogazici University.And if Ms Kavakei is the new face of Turkey's Islamist movement, the old faces are never far away. That makes me so proud."Women have always been at the centre of Turkey's Islamist controversy. As part of the military-led crackdown, headscarves like Ms Kavakei's have been banned in schools, universities and government offices, prompting mass protests.Some Turkish analysts say the change in Islamist policies is purely cosmetic. We women make it different."This is the first time women have stood as Islamist election candidates Ms Kavakei insists it is women's issues that top her agenda. "I went into politics because women are under-represented in parliament.