Virtual learning

IN ADDITION to physically attending a course, interested investors can also sign up to learn more about the stock markets on their computers.

The Investment Club Network, which establishes share/stock owning clubs around the country, also offers educational seminars, and investors can choose from eight four-hour modules which can be completed online, or at selected venues throughout the country on a quarterly basis.

Seminars available include "Graphs and Charts" and "Options Spread Trading".

The cost for all of the seminars is € 2,100, but they can also be taken individually.

Another service provider in this field is Learn About Shares, which sells a software package, LAS Trader.

Since setting up seven years ago, the firm already has more than 2,500 users in Ireland and it sells its product for €1,950.

The package, which you download onto your computer, is easy to use and enables you to get experience of trading by running a simulated equity portfolio.

When building a portfolio, the package enables you to pick a monetary value for your portfolio which you then use to "buy" stocks.

This can be done freely, or by industry category, but at the moment is restricted to the London Stock Exchange, so you can only include Irish stocks that are listed on the LSE in your portfolio, as well as UK stocks.

A useful tool offered by the package is that it incorporates a "stop-loss" facility when purchasing shares.

This means the user of the package will get a warning signal when one of the shares in their portfolio drops by a pre-determined amount - for example 5 per cent - and can be used as an indicator to sell shares.

In addition to running an equity portfolio, the software also provides additional investment tools including 15 educational modules covering areas such as technical analysis and company reports, as well as charts of each stock covered by the software.

The company recommends that investors pay particular attention to the standard moving average chart, which shows the average value of a security's price over a set period, and indicates times to buy or sell.

A major downside of the current version, however, given the levels of intra-day volatility, is that it only updates once a day, at 6.30pm, which means the stop-loss warning may often come too late.

This should change in an updated version which is launching soon, and which will also include Irish Stock Exchange listed stocks.