Online trading is not currently available in Ireland through stockbrokers because the Irish Stock Exchange does not have automated trading. Two popular online trading companies used by investment clubs in Britain to trade in US and British stocks have certain restrictions for Irish clubs.

E*Trade is only available to Irish investors with a British bank account. They require a minimum investment of £1,000 sterling (€1,521.61). The costs of trades under £1,500 sterling is no more than £14.95 sterling, above that it's £24.95 sterling. After a club has made more than 25 trades it's £14.95 sterling per transaction.

Charles Schwab discount brokers says that at the moment it is against the regulations for it to offer Irish online trading, but the company plans to introduce it here in the early part of next year.

Irish execution-only broker FEXCO charges a £12.50 (€15.87) minimum per trade or 1 per cent for amounts up to £5,000. Trades in excess of £5,000 are charged 0.35 per cent of the amount. Trades in US or Canadian stocks require a £3,000 minimum and British or Irish stocks require a £500 minimum. Investment club accounts are treated as a nominee account.

BCP Stockbrokers, a full-service brokerage, has a minimum commission of £35 but will accept any trade offer amount. Commission is a sliding scale for all full-service firms. For BCP, trades up to £2,300 the minimum of £35 applies. In excess of that it's 1.5 per cent of the amount being traded on the first £15,000 then it decreases to 1.0 and 0.5 depending on the size of the trade.

BCP Stockbrokers has six investment clubs on its books. "They tend to be groups of people who have an interest in the equity market and they'd be investors in their own right. They use the club for a smaller scale of investment and for information," said BCP managing director, Mr Martin Kane.