Buying Fractional Shares on Wells Fargo: Key Takeaways
• Wells Fargo now offers
partial-share investing in stocks and ETFs.
•
Stock Fractions buy orders at Wells Fargo must be placed in the broker’s mobile app.
• The minimum trade amount is
$10, and the maximum is
$25,000.
With a WellsTrade brokerage account, it is now possible to buy stocks and ETFs in whole-dollar amounts, which results in fractional shares. For the full scoop, keep reading.
Overview of Fractional-Share Trading at Wells Fargo
WellsTrade has introduced fractional-share trading in stocks and ETFs. Called Stock Fractions℠, the service lets an order be entered in a whole-dollar amount, and this results in a fraction of a share being purchased. Up to three decimal places are used (e.g., 4.981 shares). Dividends are paid on securities that distribute them in proportion to the fractional share owned, as long as the earned dividend is at least a penny. Voting rights may not always apply to a fraction of a share, however.
Submitting a Wells Fargo Fractional-Share Order
WellsTrade’s fractional-share service is not available on its website. To place a whole-dollar order, sign into the Wells Fargo mobile app and tap on the brokerage account. Once inside the trading hub, tap on the Trade & Quotes tab and scroll down to the Stock Fractions link. Tapping it brings up a list of securities that qualify for whole-dollar trades. Not all stocks and ETFs are included. During our review, we found some small-cap Nasdaq stocks that were not on the eligible list. Still, we did find major stocks and exchange-traded funds.
In the list of securities, tap the one you want to buy. That opens the whole-dollar order ticket. There are three preset amounts: $10, $50, and $100. It is also possible to type in a custom amount. After entering the amount you want, preview the order. If everything looks good, go ahead and submit it.
The special fractional-share order ticket only uses market orders. WellsTrade’s standard order ticket cannot be used for a whole-dollar trade.
Selling Fractional-Share Positions
Once whole-dollar purchase orders are filled, it is possible to sell them in either whole shares or fractional shares. It is not possible to sell a position in a way that leaves less than one share behind. Trying to do that will cause the entire position to be liquidated. This time, limit orders are accepted in addition to market orders.
Whole-Dollar Trades in Mutual Funds
WellsTrade also offers trading in a few thousand mutual funds, and all of them can be traded in whole dollars (in fact, they must be traded in dollar amounts).
Cost of Fractional-Share Trades at Wells Fargo
WellsTrade does not add any special surcharge for whole-dollar trades of stocks, ETFs, or mutual funds. There are no longer any commissions on online trades of stocks and ETFs, and many mutual funds at WellsTrade have no transaction fees.
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Robinhood as an Alternative
Robinhood offers fractional-share trading in stocks and ETFs. The broker’s list of available securities
for this convenient service
is much larger than WellsTrade’s. For example, the small-cap stock Iovance Biotherapeutics (with ticker symbol IOVA) can be traded in whole dollars at Robinhood but not at WellsTrade. Robinhood doesn’t include every stock on its list, however. A stock has to have a market price of at least $1.00 and a market cap of $25 million or more.
Another advantage Robinhood offers over WellsTrade is website trading. Fractional-share trades can be
placed on Robinhood’s website or mobile app, and no special order ticket is needed.
Learn more...
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Free stock + 3% IRA match or 2% transfer match at Robinhood.
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Updated on 4/14/2026.
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