I currently use E-Trade as my brokerage firm. They don’t allow partial share purchases. I’m looking for a brokerage that does allow such purchases. Do you know of a good one? Also can you tell me if I can somehow transfer my current holdings from E-Trade to a new broker? Thanks
Do a web search to find brokers that sell fractional shares. (The list keeps changing.)
Yes, current holdings can always be transferred from one broker to the tp another provided those holdings aren’t proprietary to the broker. There’s going to be $60 to $100 closing fee. But the receiving broker might compensate you for it.
You need to ask yourself why you are jumping shops rather than just adding another broker. No broker does everything well. Each has their strengths and weaknesses.
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Quill,
I scoured their website, but couldn’t find mention of fractional share trading. Do you have a link? Thanks in advance.
Arindam
Quill,
My bad. When I did a web search using the terms “fractional share trading at Chase”, I did get directed to a page Chase publishes that explained fractional share trading and said it could be down with them, but said nothing about exclusions of less liquid stocks/ETFs, which some brokers impose, such as Fido.
What’s been your experience? Thanks in advance.
The ascent page lists a few options –
https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/buying-stocks/best-fractiona…
Vicki
I currently use E-Trade as my brokerage firm. They don’t allow partial share purchases.
I’m not sure why you want to purchase fractional shares instead of whole shares, but E-Trade will purchase fractionals when done as part of a dividend reinvestment. I have my stocks set up to automatically reinvest the dividends there, and they do purchase as fractional shares.
Why do you need to do a purchase that is not a dividend reinvestment in fractional shares? I’m curious as to why whole share purchases won’t work for you.
Sir,
When is the last time you bought a single share of NVR, SEB, AMZN, GOOG, BKNG, much less BRK-A?
Let’s say that one wants to do something truly stupid and run a highly focused portfolio of just 4-6 of the biggest techie names. How much money is needed to fund that account?
Likely, it’s more than a beginning account has, which is why being able to buy fractional shares is A Good Thing. It enables small accounts to gain market exposure and market experience across a broader range of companies and stocks than they’d be able to do otherwise.
Arindam
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Sir,
I didn’t think you were new here, but I am most definitely not a ‘sir’.
When is the last time you bought a single share of NVR, SEB, AMZN, GOOG, BKNG, much less BRK-A?
These are not stocks that I own, and so I didn’t think about them or that this would be the reason to buy a fractional share. It now makes sense to me, but it was an honest question, and I don’t think it deserved a snarky response.
When is the last time you bought a single share of NVR, SEB, AMZN, GOOG, BKNG, much less BRK.A?
Mid-August, 1996. I actually bought more than one, but not many more.
2gifts,
You didn’t ask an “honest” question. You asked a very thoughtless question that paid no attention at all to the implied circumstances of the original poster.
Have a nice day.
Arindam
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You didn’t ask an “honest” question. You asked a very thoughtless question that paid no attention at all to the implied circumstances of the original poster.
Think what you want, but I could not understand why he wanted to be buying fractional shares. It’s not something I have ever done or considered except when reinvesting dividends.
There was nothing that I saw in his post that hinted at why he was interested in doing that, and I asked for clarification.
You are the one who seems to have jumped to a lot of incorrect conclusions.
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When is the last time you bought a single share of NVR, SEB, AMZN, GOOG, BKNG, much less BRK.A?
Here is my recent experience with partial shares. I have a Fidelity account. It contains 25-30 positions. Many of these stocks spin off dividends and when I get enough cash in the cash account I will add to these positions.
Last year (2021) I started transferring $500 per month into the brokerage account from my checking account with the intent of buying FBGRX a Fidelity proprietary mutual fund. Fidelity allowed me to buy fractional shares of FBGRX with no problems.
This year I wanted to establish a position in Amazon so I’ve been using the $500/mo to buy AMZN and have amassed a grand total of .499 shares of AMZN so far this year. The cool thing (at least in my opinion it’s cool) is AMZN plans to have a 20/1 stock split sometime later this year so my .499 shares could potentially become 10 shares. Even more since I will continue to contribute $500/mo until the split occurs.
So yes, Fidelity allows partial share purchases.
Regards,
ImAGolfer (retired '03)
This year I wanted to establish a position in Amazon so I’ve been using the $500/mo to buy AMZN and have amassed a grand total of .499 shares of AMZN so far this year. The cool thing (at least in my opinion it’s cool) is AMZN plans to have a 20/1 stock split sometime later this year so my .499 shares could potentially become 10 shares. Even more since I will continue to contribute $500/mo until the split occurs.
What happens if they observe your less than one share and issue you cash in lieu of shares instead of 0.499 x split-ratio shares? I assume it is your broker who handles the fractional shares, not the DTCC or Amazon’s transfer agent.
What happens if they observe your less than one share and issue you cash in lieu of shares instead of 0.499 x split-ratio shares?
That’s fine. AMZN has gone up in price since I’ve bought it so I will be happy. I guess I would then use the cash proceeds to continue to amass AMZN shares at the now post split cheaper price.