Until recently, the only way you could invest in a stock was if you had enough cash to buy an entire share of stock and pay transaction fees. With the Plynk app, you can invest in a stock or fund with as little as $1 by buying a "fractional share."
With fractional share trading, you can buy a small slice of a company’s stock, rather than buying a whole share. That can make it easier to start investing since the stock for some companies can trade for hundreds or even thousands of dollars per share.
Imagine a company whose stock costs $50 per share. With fractional share trading, you can still invest in that company without spending the full $50—even if you invest $1 or $5, you still own a piece. Over time, as you have more cash available you can buy additional stock to build your investment portfolio even more.
Beyond being able to purchase stock for as little as $1, there are also other reasons buying fractional shares may be convenient.
Fractional shares let you invest a specific dollar amount instead of purchasing a certain number of shares. For example, let’s say you have $60 to invest and the stock price for that company that interests you is $50. In the past you could buy one share and have $10 left over, but with fractional shares you can simply buy $60 worth.
Additionally, fractional shares allow you to diversify your portfolio (spread your investments around to reduce risk) without having to put a lot of money into it. If you’d like to own stock in a variety of companies, you no longer need hundreds or thousands of dollars to do it—you can use that $60 to buy fractional shares of several different companies.