Buying a small number of shares in a stock?

Question

I am brand new to this so please excuse the naive question(s).

Am I able to buy around 10-50 shares in just one company? I am only looking to invest $300 to $600. What type of account should I open and how would I do so?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Wait til you have more money. 1. You shouldn't be allowed to buy shares unless you have a reasonable net worth or income (UK rules anyway) and 2.It will be expensive in fees etc. Not worth the effort.

Answer 2

You can, but consider this: Invest your money in a no-load, low expense mutual fund.  (A "load" is a sales commission.)  You get the advantage of diversity, as you are investing in the stock of a number of companies in a number of sectors, and professional management.  Click the link for a screen where you can search for no-load mutual funds with a low-to-no minimum investment and expenses of 1% or less.

Answer 3

Rather buy individual shares in stock, maybe you should give careful consideration to buying mutual funds.

There are many people just like you that are, or were looking to invest and those that did bought Mutual Funds and/or Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).  One purpose of mutual funds is to help investors like you, who are either just entering the investment world or who have no investing experience.  Once you feel you at least have an understanding of investments you should look into ETFs which are similar to mutual funds but are traded on the exchanges.

Mutual Fund companies as well as ETFs have an entire array of products many will fit your needs. You can go to the MSN.Money website

http://moneycentral.msn.com/home.asp  it has an entire section on mutual funds and Exchange Traded Funds.  Read about the various products and in doing so you will be getting investment ideas and at the same time educating yourself about investing.

You could also contact the funds companies for more information.  I have found that Vanguard & Fidelity can meet your needs for mutual funds.  The service and information they provide is all free and you will find it helpful.

Answer 4

You can invest smaller amounts but the trading fee will be so much that you will hardly ever be able to make a profit. At least for US.

For example most trading accounts will charge somewhere around 10 bucks every time you buy or sell. So that means for 600 dollars worth of investment, you are paying a 20 dollar trading fee and this doesn't even include the annual maintenance fee etc.

Most probably you should wait a bit and save some more money before investing.  

Answer 5

You may want to look into a DRIP plan (Dividend Reinvestment) with a certain company.  This allows you to invest smaller amounts periodically and have dividends go into buying more stock.  Check out a company that you are interested in investing on their website there should be info.