Is there is a minimum amount (or minimum number of shares) when you trade in the US stock market?
Question:
At this time, I don't have much money to execute a good trade..
Can I buy one stock with a small amount (like a afew cents) and pay the company its commission? or is there is like a minimum amount or minimum number of shares that i cant buy below?
Answer:
Usually there's no minimum, but some companies do charge you a fee if you're inactive.
Just so you know, there are a lot of good brokererages depending on what you like and how you trade.
Barron's Online has a great article on brokerages that they publish each year. (I'll try to find you the link for the March 6,2006 article)
For basic stuff, E*Trade, Ameritrade, and Scottrade are sufficient. For more complex trades, I'd recommend Optionsxpress, ThinkorSwim, or interactivebrokers.
Based on what you put in your question, I'd recommend one of the first three, or maybe Optionxpress, but all are very good. Cheapest probably is scottrade (of the larger online firms). Yes there are cheaper like interactivebrokers, but you'll have to get used to their software based platform (which is doable). They're only about $1/contract on options!
Brokerages like Fidelity are horrible for anyone with any decent experience.
So, decide what's important to you as a trader and compare the brokers! You can use the article, or go to each website as they all seem to have comparison charts!
If you have any questions, let me know.
Hope that helps!
Change brokers. Most brokers will let your account go dormant for years as long as you keep a small amount of cash with them. Seriously, just tell them you're leaving. Your stocks will be transfered to wherever you move to.
There is no set minimum when it comes to buying or selling shares. Each website may have a minimum requirement though.
Go to Sharebuilder - www.sharebuilder.com - they don't have any minimums and you can trade for as little as $4 a trade.
This is actually very common, because most brokerage houses get charged on accounts which are not "active", ie don't trade.
TDameritrade does not have this, so if you want to switch--you can.
The minimum nuber of shares that you can trade is one share (well -- you can trade zero shares if you like).
Stocks typically trade in lots of one hundred shares. Anything less than 100 shares is called an "odd lot." You will not get as good a price trading odd lots as you would trading whole lots.
If you buy a stock for $0.01 and you pay a few USD to your broker you will never make any money but your broker will make millions with enough customers like you.
I can give you a good trade every quarter for FREE but you still need at least $2,000.00 to buy something on Monday and sell it on Tuesday and make enough to recover your comissions.
Top 6 Answerer.
switch to scottrade.seriously.
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