Private clients of Irish stockbrokers are abandoning contracts for difference following the recent turmoil in financial markets, executives of Bank of Ireland Private Banking told the Irish Independent. CFDs, geared financial derivatives long used by institutional investors, have become a favourite way for the private clients of Irish stockbrokers to play the market over the past five years. These instruments are said to have accounted for over half of trading in the Irish market earlier this year, when the Irish Stock Exchange was riding at all-time highs. But as Irish shares tumbled in recent months, CFD providers started making margin calls to cover losses being made. In cases where these could not be met, holdings were often automatically sold down. Some market observers say hundreds of millions of euros have been lost. Others talk of billions. "For the CFD private client investor, by and large, the game is over," said Mark Cunningham, managing director of Bank of Ireland Private Banking at a presentation on the outlook for equity markets. Bank of Ireland Private Banking forecasts that international equity markets should gain between 15 per cent and 20 per cent in value over the next 12 to 18 months. The Irish market, which has been among the worst performing western exchanges this year, should rise by over 20 per cent over the same period, it believes.