When you buy stock do you have to buy a certain amount? Say the stock was .05 a share.?

Answer 1

No minimum, but the broker fee will be the same for 1 5 cent share or 1000 5 cent shares.

Answer 2

Sometimes it my depend on the Broker. They may have a minimum amount of shares you can buy. I think for an on-line "Share-Builder" has no minimum and you can even buy a partial share, like ½ a share (They not trade every stock, but, many to choose from). Usually a share that .05 will trade on OB (Over the Board), something like that and a a broker may charge an additional fee. Stocks on the New York Stock Exchange or American Stock Exchange, the broker just charge for the regular rate as these are more common and easy traded stocks.
What you as an investor must think about. If, the Stock is .05 per share and it cost $8 per transaction you not want to buy one share. It will cost you $16.05 to buy and sell. What you would need to do is think what it may go up to, we will say .15 for example. Add it the cost to buy and sell $16 @ $8 per transaction. If you buy 100 shares @ .05 then it cost you $21 Total. When it go to .15 and you sell you only get $15 so you lost $6. If, you buy 1000 shares it cost you $50 + $16 for a total of $66. Then if it go to .15 and you sell, you get $150 - $66 to buy and make a profit of $84. So, the bottom line here is how many .05 shares do you need to buy, to make a profit?

For trivia; I bought 1000 shares of a .05 stock about 10 years ago (For fun) and had the Stock Certificate sent to me. I have it put away. Not even remember the name of the company. I never get any reports or anything from them and assume they gone out of business. :-D

Answer 3

There are minimums to open a brokerage account, say $1000 or so. The broker will not open an account for you if you just want to put in $20 or so. Additionally, there is going to be a fee for buying the stock, anywhere from $5 to $20 for most brokers today. You wouldn't want to spend $5 in transactions costs for just $2 worth of stock, it just doesn't make financial sense. So, the answer is that there are not often minimums, but you should not buy just a little bit of stock in this manner.

Answer 4

It used to be that people bought and sold in 100 share lots, but that is long past.

Some places have a minimum commission, so it makes sense to buy as much as you can afford.

Answer 5

Ask your broker. Brokers will differ, but each will have some minimum commission (which may vary from customer to customer, depending on how good a customer they are).