5 ms·

A bit OT financial advice: it's almost never worth it to buy a single share. The reason is the commission will eat you up. Assume a low $7/trade commission. Tha

A bit OT financial advice: it's almost never worth it to buy a single share. The reason is the commission will eat you up. Assume a low $7/trade commission. That could possibly cost you $14 round trip (purchase/exit). With Tesla ~$100/share, It'll have to go up 14% just to break even on the trade. Even if you just buy in single shares but exit in multiple shares to spread the commission, you still have to fade 7% commission. Not worth it. If you're investing in the hundreds of dollars, you should look for low commission options such as CDs. Edit: I accidentally replied to the post. My comment was meant in response to this comment. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5904397 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5904397

psychotik 13y ago
Unless it's BRK.A ;)
- MichaelApproved 13y ago
  Very few exceptions. Even Google, at $900/share, is not worth the $14 round trip commission. And if your investing in hundreds, you're likely doing it through a bank or some other service will probably costs >= $20/trade. Ouch OP.
  - joshhart 13y ago
    I'm not sure they offer it any more (I'm grandfathered in), but Wells Fargo PMA accounts have 100 free trades / year. You do need 50k in total assets with Wells Fargo to get it though. Still, it's saved me at least 1k over the last 2 years.
ian_cyw 13y ago
Not necessarily, there are cheap $1 brokers like Interactive Brokers. I've used them, they get the job done. http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/?f=commission http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/?f=commission
- MichaelApproved 13y ago
  The comment I meant to reply to was a first time buyer. It's more likely he/she spent $20/trade.
JackWebbHeller 13y ago
(Assuming this was meant as a reply to my comment) - I do understand that, I pretty much just bought a single share to say I had one, and see how it would perform, more as an experiment and out of curiosity than an actual business interest.
- MichaelApproved 13y ago
  Yes. I would've reposted but it already got replies. I can understand the desire to experiment, just keep that in mind for future trades. Commission can be a killer as you trade more, especially if you trade less than a few thousand dollars at a time.
- tome 13y ago
  > I pretty much just bought a single share to say I had one This I can understand. It's nice psychologically to be an owner of something. > and see how it would perform But this you can do without buying :)
  - lostlogin 13y ago
    It's so much more interesting when you have something to lose.
- VLM 13y ago
  "I pretty much just bought a single share to say I had one" Depending on your social circle, this gets done with kids a lot, especially with an old fashioned issued paper share instead of electronic. Decades ago Disney used to have quite an elaborate paper stock certificate for this purpose and they obviously used their professional artists and graphics designers. My local electric company in comparison looked little better than a secretary hand typed it, which might be how they made it... Perhaps they still do this. Its hard to find a corporation worth endorsing to my kids like this. Also during the first dotcom boom there were at least a couple people collecting paper certificates from dotcoms and they still trade among themselves to this day as collectibles. Just some interesting ideas to think about / google about.
dbaupp 13y ago
Presumably the advice should be "it's never worth it to only buy a few hundred dollars worth of shares", since buying a single share worth $10,000/share is a decent deal (with respect to the commission, at least).
- cjg 13y ago
  There aren't many shares priced up at that point because there is usually a stock split so that the shares are then more affordable and therefore more liquid.
  - nitid_name 13y ago
    At the time of this posting, Berkshire Hathaway stock is trading at $172,750.31 per share and Seaboard Corporation is at $2,765.00/share. Of course, other than those two, I think the next most expensive stocks are in the google/apple $400-1000 range.
- kriro 13y ago
  Yes, a single BRK-A would be ok :)
Barraketh 13y ago
Also slightly OT, but Loyal3 (http://www.loyal3.com http://www.loyal3.com) provides fee-free stock trading - both entry and exit. Unfortunately they don't carry TSLA on their platform yet.
- davedx 13y ago
  How do they make money?
  - krautsourced 13y ago
    Looks like they are some sort of stock re-selling business of sorts? You can buy partial shares apparently. I guess they work like a fond, that you buy into and pick your own portfolio, basically?
  - driverdan 13y ago
    From TechCrunch[1]: Loyal3 works with publicly-traded companies on creating a Customer Stock Ownership Plan or CSOP. In a CSOP, a company pays the brokerage fees on behalf of the investor because it might want to have more of a connection and more loyalty from its shareholders (in contrast to dealing with day traders, high-frequency trading algorithms or other types of activist shareholders). A customer that loves the company’s product might be more inclined to stick around during a difficult patch, for example. [1]: http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/12/loyal3/ http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/12/loyal3/
  - Barraketh 13y ago
    Standard Silicon Valley business model - get as many people on the platform as possible, and then monetize later (probably as a marketing channel, but they also have some other monetization strategies in the works). They batch their transactions, and they are themselves a broker dealer, so their internal per-trade cost is extremely low.

psychotik 13y ago

Unless it's BRK.A ;)

MichaelApproved 13y ago
Very few exceptions. Even Google, at $900/share, is not worth the $14 round trip commission. And if your investing in hundreds, you're likely doing it through a bank or some other service will probably costs >= $20/trade. Ouch OP.
- joshhart 13y ago
  I'm not sure they offer it any more (I'm grandfathered in), but Wells Fargo PMA accounts have 100 free trades / year. You do need 50k in total assets with Wells Fargo to get it though. Still, it's saved me at least 1k over the last 2 years.

ian_cyw 13y ago

Not necessarily, there are cheap $1 brokers like Interactive Brokers. I've used them, they get the job done. http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/?f=commission http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/?f=commission

MichaelApproved 13y ago
The comment I meant to reply to was a first time buyer. It's more likely he/she spent $20/trade.

JackWebbHeller 13y ago

(Assuming this was meant as a reply to my comment) - I do understand that, I pretty much just bought a single share to say I had one, and see how it would perform, more as an experiment and out of curiosity than an actual business interest.

MichaelApproved 13y ago
Yes. I would've reposted but it already got replies. I can understand the desire to experiment, just keep that in mind for future trades. Commission can be a killer as you trade more, especially if you trade less than a few thousand dollars at a time.
tome 13y ago
> I pretty much just bought a single share to say I had one This I can understand. It's nice psychologically to be an owner of something. > and see how it would perform But this you can do without buying :)
- lostlogin 13y ago
  It's so much more interesting when you have something to lose.
VLM 13y ago
"I pretty much just bought a single share to say I had one" Depending on your social circle, this gets done with kids a lot, especially with an old fashioned issued paper share instead of electronic. Decades ago Disney used to have quite an elaborate paper stock certificate for this purpose and they obviously used their professional artists and graphics designers. My local electric company in comparison looked little better than a secretary hand typed it, which might be how they made it... Perhaps they still do this. Its hard to find a corporation worth endorsing to my kids like this. Also during the first dotcom boom there were at least a couple people collecting paper certificates from dotcoms and they still trade among themselves to this day as collectibles. Just some interesting ideas to think about / google about.

dbaupp 13y ago

Presumably the advice should be "it's never worth it to only buy a few hundred dollars worth of shares", since buying a single share worth $10,000/share is a decent deal (with respect to the commission, at least).

cjg 13y ago
There aren't many shares priced up at that point because there is usually a stock split so that the shares are then more affordable and therefore more liquid.
- nitid_name 13y ago
  At the time of this posting, Berkshire Hathaway stock is trading at $172,750.31 per share and Seaboard Corporation is at $2,765.00/share. Of course, other than those two, I think the next most expensive stocks are in the google/apple $400-1000 range.
kriro 13y ago
Yes, a single BRK-A would be ok :)

Barraketh 13y ago

Also slightly OT, but Loyal3 (http://www.loyal3.com http://www.loyal3.com) provides fee-free stock trading - both entry and exit. Unfortunately they don't carry TSLA on their platform yet.

davedx 13y ago
How do they make money?
- krautsourced 13y ago
  Looks like they are some sort of stock re-selling business of sorts? You can buy partial shares apparently. I guess they work like a fond, that you buy into and pick your own portfolio, basically?
- driverdan 13y ago
  From TechCrunch[1]: Loyal3 works with publicly-traded companies on creating a Customer Stock Ownership Plan or CSOP. In a CSOP, a company pays the brokerage fees on behalf of the investor because it might want to have more of a connection and more loyalty from its shareholders (in contrast to dealing with day traders, high-frequency trading algorithms or other types of activist shareholders). A customer that loves the company’s product might be more inclined to stick around during a difficult patch, for example. [1]: http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/12/loyal3/ http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/12/loyal3/
- Barraketh 13y ago
  Standard Silicon Valley business model - get as many people on the platform as possible, and then monetize later (probably as a marketing channel, but they also have some other monetization strategies in the works). They batch their transactions, and they are themselves a broker dealer, so their internal per-trade cost is extremely low.