No, they don’t. Back in the days before online brokerages, (I’m not sure when the practice was abandoned), it was customary for brokers to charge “odd lot” fees for trades that weren’t multiples of 100 shares, but now you will have no trouble trading any small-ish whole number of shares.
Of course, if you want to trade derivatives on stocks, then you are still generally stuck with lots of 100.
Although the price of options is lower, the fact that you have to trade in blocks of 100 is still a big deal, because in absolute dollar terms, you are still as sensitive to price swings#Delta) as though you owned significantly more shares than that money could buy. This volatility can make it harder to stay solvent longer than the market stays wrong.
No, they don’t. Back in the days before online brokerages, (I’m not sure when the practice was abandoned), it was customary for brokers to charge “odd lot” fees for trades that weren’t multiples of 100 shares, but now you will have no trouble trading any small-ish whole number of shares.
Of course, if you want to trade derivatives on stocks, then you are still generally stuck with lots of 100.
Usually those are priced differently and will be more difficult to buy/sell. Most trading still goes on in lots of 100.
But the cost of derivatives is generally so much lower that it’s not really a big deal.
Although the price of options is lower, the fact that you have to trade in blocks of 100 is still a big deal, because in absolute dollar terms, you are still as sensitive to price swings#Delta) as though you owned significantly more shares than that money could buy. This volatility can make it harder to stay solvent longer than the market stays wrong.
If you don’t value leverage, you shouldn’t be playing in the options market in the first place.