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E*TRADE Fractional Shares (2025)
Does E*TRADE allow buying partial shares of expensive stocks?
Morgan Stanley E*TRADE fractional shares investing. How to sell fractional shares on E*TRADE.
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Can You Buy Fractional Shares on E*Trade?
If you want to trade fractional shares at E*Trade, this article will give you what you need to know. We also have some useful tips for you.
Trading Fractional Shares at E*Trade
Like many other brokers, E*Trade lets you buy and sell fractional shares of mutual funds using its software. When you buy, you can only do whole-dollar trades, so you will get a fractional amount of the fund in your account.
Right now, ETrade does not let you buy fractional shares of stocks and ETFs, but you can sell fractional shares. Since ETrade has a free DRIP (dividend reinvestment) service for stocks and ETFs, many users end up with fractional shares in their accounts.
How to Sell Fractional Shares at E*Trade
To sell a fractional share at E*Trade, you need to use a day order. If you are selling more than one whole share (for example, 1.084 shares), you can use either a market order or a limit order. If you are selling less than one whole share, you have to use a market order. In both cases, you must sell the entire fractional amount. You cannot sell only part of a fractional share.
Charles Schwab as a Second Option
If you want to buy fractional shares more often and not just get them from dividends, you may want to use Charles Schwab. This broker lets you buy and sell fractional shares (including buying) for many stocks.
At Charles Schwab, you can trade stocks using whole-dollar amounts. This is called Stock Slices. You can buy these fractions in any Schwab account, like custodial, IRA, joint accounts, and more.
At Schwab, you can buy any stock in the S&P 500 Index using whole dollars. Other stocks and all ETFs cannot be traded as fractional shares. Only S&P 500 stocks are included in this service.
For S&P 500 stocks, there is a $5 minimum per trade and a $50,000 maximum. In one order, you can pick up to 30 stocks. There are no extra fees for Stock Slices trades, and since Schwab does not charge commissions on regular trades, there are no fees for buying fractional shares of S&P 500 stocks.
Free Charles Schwab Account
Visit Schwab Website
How to Buy Fractional Shares on Charles Schwab?
To use Stock Slices, you need to find the right order form on the Schwab website. Click on the Trade tab at the top, then select Schwab Stock Slices. There are different order forms on the website, so be sure to use the correct one.
Once you open the Stock Slices order form, you can start your order. This process takes a few more steps than a normal order. First, pick a stock or group of stocks. The stocks are grouped by sector and listed alphabetically. You can pick up to 30 stocks, then hit the green button at the bottom to go on. On the next page, you can choose to reinvest dividends for each stock if you want.
If you pick more than one stock, remember that the minimum is $5 per stock. The total you enter will be split evenly between your choices. For example, if you pick 3 stocks and want to invest $60, each one will get $20. Orders made through the Stock Slices order form are market orders for the day session only, and you cannot change these settings.
When your order is filled, any fractional shares in your account will work much like other shares. Stock splits and mergers will be handled the same way as regular shares, but fractional shares do not let you vote or take part in voluntary corporate actions.
Updated on 6/5/2025.
Arthur Chachuna is a professional personal finance blogger, and the owner of Brokerage-Review.com.
He has been an avid investor for 25 years, and has a background in both applied math and programming.
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