IMPORTANT: Investing involves risks, including the potential loss of your entire investment. Market fluctuations, currency exchange rates, and other factors may affect your returns. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Fractional shares represent partial ownership of a stock and may carry different rights than full shares, including limited voting rights and restrictions on transfer or liquidation.
What are fractional shares?
A fractional share is a slice of a stock that lets you invest a U.S. dollar amount instead of buying a full share. This means you can start investing with as little as US$1, even if a stock's full share price is higher.
Fractional shares make investing more accessible.
Start with as little as US$1
Get started at the amount you choose.
Choose from most stocks
Trade fractional shares of most U.S.-listed stocks commission-free online.1
Place trades in U.S. dollar or share amounts
Trade fractional shares of multiple stocks at once.
How to invest in fractional shares:
Common fractional shares questions
A fractional share is when you own less than one whole share of a company. Fractional shares allow you to invest in stocks based on a U.S. dollar amount, so you may end up with a fraction of a share, a whole share, or more than one share.
With fractional shares, you choose how much to invest, and that amount is converted into a fractional number of shares based on the current market price.
For example, if a stock is trading at US$100 and you invest US$25, you would own 0.25 of a share. As the value of the investment changes, the value of your fractional shares will rise or fall accordingly. You can buy additional fractional shares over time or sell your fractional holdings using the trade ticket.
Yes, proportionate to the percentage of the share you own.
Voting: If you own less than one whole share of stock, you will generally be able to participate in mandatory corporate actions such as stock splits, mergers, or spin-offs, but you will not be able to participate in any shareholder vote or voluntary corporate actions like tender offers and certain rights offerings.
Transferability: If you want to transfer your account or specific share positions to another broker, only whole shares can be transferred. Your fractional shares that cannot be transferred or reorganized will be liquidated at prevailing market prices, and the proceeds will be credited to your account. Since your fractional shares cannot be transferred, your overall SIPC coverage may be affected.
Corporate action: If you receive fractional shares as the result of a stock split or other corporate action, we may sell the shares on either the open market or to the issuer or transfer agent, and you are entitled to receive your pro rata portion of the proceeds of such sale. If sold on the open market, the sale price may differ from that offered to certain registered owners by the issuer or transfer agent.
Limits on fractional share investing can vary based on the type of order and other factors. Any applicable minimums or maximums will be displayed during the trading experience.
The individual share(s) will be in your account.
Yes, to place an order for fractional shares through Schwab, you will need to have an eligible Schwab brokerage account (e.g., individual, joint account, etc.).
There are no commissions when you place a fractional shares trade online through Schwab.
Multiply your current fractions by the whole number shares of the stock split to see what your future whole or fractional share holdings will be upon completion of the stock split. For example, if you owned .15 of a share and the company announced a 4-1 split, you could anticipate holding .60 (.15 x 4) of a share when the stock split is complete.
If you held .43 shares of the same company at the completion of the same 4-1 stock split, you'd have 1.72 shares. This equates to a whole share and a fractional share.
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