Private investor trading is back to its highs of last year. The latest figures from ComPeer, which monitors private investor activity, revealed there were 2.3 million execution-only trades by private investors in the first quarter of 2007. This level almost matches the 2.4 million trades in the first quarter of last year and was reached despite February’s market correction.

Trading has continued to pick up since the third quarter of 2006, previous to which volumes fell off about 25% on the back of that year’s May correction.

All the indications are that this is set to be another strong quarter with about 45,000 private investor trades currently being struck on the London Stock Exchange’s trading platforms each day, compared with an average of 46,000 trades a day during the first quarter.

The latest figures show a continued migration to online accounts with 63% (1.4 million) of the 2.3 million execution trades done over the internet compared with 60% (1.2 million) in the previous quarter and 54% in the same period last year.