Ten years of innovative, dedicated bridge-building in the financial jungle of the City of London are being celebrated by Israel Discount Bank (IDB), one of Israel's three most powerful commercial banking institutions, with assets in excess of $50 billion and with 260 offices around the world.

Time was when the City of London divided into two separate breeds of banks.

There were the clearing banks founded by Protestant (in the case of Barclays, Quaker) families. And the merchant banks, many (but not all) with Jewish roots.

When Sir Victor Blank was appointed chairman of Lloyds TSB in 2006, before the disastrous merger with HBOS a year later, it was a case of two firsts. He was the first Jewish chairman of a clearing bank and among the first to travel from merchant banking - at Charterhouse (via GUS) - into the rarefied world of high-street banking.

I am often asked what skills it takes to trade the stock market; indeed I have sat with my fair share of school leavers and young graduates, all looking to get an insight into the high-flying world of City trading. There are a number of important aspects to investment decisions: the risk, the reward, the thought process of the impending trade, research, but most importantly of all, discipline. Without discipline, you may as well throw your money down the drain.

Yorkshire student and celebrity chef Sam Stern has made money by creating a brand out of himself. He wrote his first book, Get Cooking, an international best seller, at just 14 and so far the teenage chef estimates that with around 600,000 sold in 16 countries it has made him a profit of £30,000. His most recent, Sam Stern's Eat Vegetarian (which followed Cooking Up a Storm; Real Food, Real Fast and Sam Stern's Student Cookbook) was written when he was 19. The politics and sociology student at Edinburgh University is also a regular television guest and writes a monthly newspaper column.

Harry Ingram, 16, from Radlett, started selling stink bombs in the playground at Hertsmere Jewish Primary School, buying them for 50p and selling them for a pound. He also made a huge profit on sweets, buying them for 0.2p and selling them for 60p. He then set up two websites supplying practical joke items like fake parking tickets and whoopee cushions. And a website set up for his travel-themed barmitzvah, under the name of harryairways, proved an unexpected earner - he sold the domain name for £500 to another Harry who was actually setting up an airline.

Edgware teen Adam Eliaz was a finalist in last year's Junior Apprentice. The 18-year-old started making money at 11, buying and selling sporting equipment on eBay. He left school – The London Academy in Edgware – at 16 and started his own official limited company last year. He reports good sales, making a turnover £6,000 to £13,000 per month. Says Adam: