how many shares of stock do I have to buy to start investing?

Question

I want to start investing with some stocks, do brokers like ameritrade make you buy round lots or can I go in and buy 5 shares only at first?

Answer 1

In order to invest, you just need to buy 1.

However, you need to take into account the cost of buying and selling. There's a commission on all transactions.

Even if the commission is just $9.95, you still have to make $19.90 just to break even (There's a commission to buy, and a commission to sell).

Most stocks don't rise more than a dollar a day. The ones that do, usually cost alot per share.
For instance: Right now, Morgan Stanley stock is up 53 cents. If you bought 37 shares this morning, it would have cost you $2,892.66. You would have only made $19.98. After the buying and selling commissions you would have made $.03.

Your best bet is to save up a few hundred dollars and buy some stock that you intend to keep for long-term. You might even buy more each month or so to increase your portfolio. Find a company that may not go up tomorrow, but will go up over time.

Do your research and find a dependable company.

Good luck.

Answer 2

The simple answer to your question is that, yes, you can buy as few as 5, or even 1, share. Anything less than 100 shares is called an odd-lot, and the exchanges are required by law to trade them. You might not get a good price when you buy and sell, and it make take a few minutes, but yes, you can trade just 1 share at a time.

However, as pointed out earlier, it would be stupid to pay $10 in commissions (both when you buy, and when you sell) to buy even 5 shares of a $100 stock - $20 out of $500 is 4%, while the average stock has returned about 10% per year in the past century.

If you're interested in small amounts, I suggest a direct-access broker like MB Trading. They only charge $0.01 per share, with a $1.00 minimum. The only reason to use Ameritrade (which I used to do) or any other brokerage is for the free research (for customers) you can find on their website - and I never found that research very useful.

Answer 3

All you need is 1 share to be in the game! Ameritrade and Etrade is flexible. The large brokerage firms might have problems with buying small number of shares, but most online trading sites don't care.. see http://ibooyah.com for investing ideas.

Answer 4

You can buy directly from some companies for as little as $50.oo.

If you use a broker then you will have a fee to pay that will vary from broker to broker. They have minimums such as $500.oo.

The minimums generally are for the dollar amount NOT the share amount. I use "scott trade".

Answer 5

Scottrade lets you how ever many shares you want- whether it's one share or a thousand. You only need $500 to open an account. The commision for each trade is only $7.

Answer 6

You can get as many or little as you like. If you want ot start investing with a small amount of capital i reccommend you start with sharebuilder and set up a plan until reach an amount to place more substantial trades.

Answer 7

The online brokers allow you buy as many or as few shares as you like.

Answer 8

Unless you have rather large amount to diversify through several companies, your best bet is to invest your money elsewhere. Perhaps Mutual Funds or even better an IRA.

Answer 9

You can buy any amount of shares you want, that is up to you. However, to open up an account with a brokerage firm, you will need about $1,500 - $2,000.

Answer 10

Scottrade require the least amount to open a cash account. 500.00 for a cash account and 2000.00 for a margine account. If you wish to start smaller, there are companys like sharebuilders, where you can buy fractional amounts of shares

http://content.sharebuilder.com/MgdCon/Jump/Web/welcome/newwelc/index.htm

http://www.scottrade.com/?supbid=63981&OVRAW=scottrade&OVKEY=scottrade&OVMTC=standard