How do you buy stocks?

[tacsniper]

Are there minimum shares you have to buy? For example, Apple, is it true you can only buy them in "lot" of 100 shares? Or can I go to a broker with $2000 and buy as much as I can with that $2000?

[urban.one]

Yes, you can do that.

I would suggest you do some research and some reading before you decide to trade stocks.



Originally posted by tacsniper
Or can I go to a broker with $2000 and buy as much as I can with that $2000?

[SigmaRacing]

You can either have a broker perform the transactions for you (he takes a fee) or you can go the self serve route with etrade or td waterhouse, etc. The fee is obviously less if you go self serve. I agree with the poster above, you'll want to read up on this a lot before getting into the game.

[Thehonger8]

Also if you wanted investing in apple with 2000 won't make you a lot of money, you can only buy like around 11 stocks. Unless you want to long term hold but it will still make you very little because if the stock goes up 1 dollar you get 0.60 percent increase in your money.

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

If you buy an uneven amount like that you will get charged an extra fee as well.

[anyone]

It depends on the price of the stock how many you can buy without paying a premium

$0.01 - 0.09 lots of 1000
$0.10 - 0.99 lots of 100
$1.00 - 9.99 lots of 10
10.00 + lots of 1

I could be wrong on these numbers exactly, so someone correct me if so.

[liquid1010]

Yes, if you buy an odd amount there is sometimes an "odd lot" fee in addition to the standard fee.

[Rat Fink]

.

[Rav4Guy]

Trading price per unit is less than $0.10 - board lot size is 1,000 units
Trading price per unit is $0.10 to $0.99 - board lot size is 500 units
Trading price per unit is $1.00 or more - board lot size is 100 units

Companies over $10 = board lot of 100.

"odd lots" will be harder to fill plus. You'll be buying it at a premium and selling it at a discount.

[rc2002]

Odd lots are sometimes necessary if you want to invest in blue chip stocks - especially if you don't have a lot of money to invest.

Imagine buying 100 Share of Berkshire Hathaway A.

[Schwa]

With AAPL's volume of 43MM I don't see how anyone would have trouble dumping 10 shares.

[Rav4Guy]

An odd lot of a large cap vs. a small/micro cap will definitely vary in terms of ease of sale as you'll still need someone to buy the amount of odd shares you have. Even if it trades there, doesn't mean your odd lot will be part of the fill as the odd lots will be at a discount/premium .

Try to get away from odd lots if possible. It'll make things a lot easier.