It is said that Julius Caesar started the tradition of making resolutions on 1 January as a way to honour the Roman god Janus, whose two faces allowed him to look back into the past year and forward to the new year.

Perhaps 2000 years of tradition explains why we seem to be hardwired to enter the new year with a greater sense of optimism.

So far in 2013, the FTSE 100 index has rallied by 4% buoyed by resolution of “fiscal cliff” discussions in the US, the belief that US economic growth is accelerating, positive data from China and the absence of any further negative news from Europe. 

Despite the ‘triple dip’ debate, trading momentum for UK recruiters felt a little better to me in Q4 and it’s interesting to note that the ever-impressive Marks Sattin is currently advertising for professional recruiters across finance, legal and marketing. Within the recruitment sector, the year-to-date leader board includes Empresaria (+32%) and Matchtech (+12%). Heavyweights like Hays (+4%), Michael Page (0%) and SThree (+3%) have performed more in line with the rest of the market but the real signs of life are in Europe with Adecco, Randstad and Brunel all up 7-9%.

I was intrigued to see that banking and finance specialists featured strongly in Recruiter's 2013 FAST 50, which was released earlier this month. The number of financial services recruiters doubled from three to six, with new entrant Oliver James Associates topping the rankings. From the perspective of someone operating within the industry this seems counterintuitive and certainly hasn’t been evident in the trading performance of larger players.

The six included a number of well-known names, such as Astbury Marsden, Goodman Masson and Sheffield Haworth. As a member of the judging panel for the Recruiter Awards for Excellence over the past five years, I can vouch that such companies consistently impress and regularly feature in the latter stages of judging.

Speaking of which, I’m off to Recruiter’s offices this afternoon to assist with an initial assessment of this year’s submissions, as I understand they have been deluged with entries this year. Formal judging takes place in February – by which time most New Year’s resolutions have been broken.