Nah, you can use online brokerages for $5-7 per trade.
I'm investing a small amount of money. Few hundred dollars
Assuming $6 on the buy and $6 on the sell is 4% of $300. Returns must be greater than 4% per trade to not lose money.
If it's a really small amount of money it probably doesn't belong in stocks unless you're keeping the stocks a long time. For the long haul with a small amount of money you should consider index stocks. They mimic the index and go up as the market goes up. (or down) and doesn't take stock expertise to investigate.
Unless he's looking to assume some risk on this small amount of money and invest in highly volatile, high risk stock, with the potential to make a quick 10-15% gain.
What would be a stock like that?
$500 + $50 tax + $50 ship + $50 ebay = $650 expense. sell price $700. 50 profit /650 expense = 7.6% What fantasy so you have that you'll make on stocks in 2 weeks with less than 5 hours of work?Do you think researching stocks intelligently doesn't take time and effort? Or would you rather just listen to every hot tip at the mikva?
Penny stock.
ebay and paypal fees are around $90 if I sell it for $700 and seems like it will be hard to get more then $650
buy 2-3 shares of tsla. Sure to have a quick loss or gain there.