Buying Fractional Shares on Wells Fargo: Key Takeaways
• Wells Fargo now offers partial shares investing in stocks and ETFs.
• Fractional-share orders at Wells Fargo must be placed on the broker’s mobile app.
• The minimum trade amount is $10, and the maximum is $25,000.
It is now possible with a brokerage account at WellsTrade to buy stocks and ETFs in whole dollars, which results in fractional shares. For the full scoop, read on.
Overview of Fractional-Share Trading at Wells Fargo
WellsTrade has rolled out fractional-share trading in stocks and ETFs. Called Stock Fractions℠, the service allows an order to be placed 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 earned on securities that pay them in proportion of the fractional share owned, as long as the earned dividend is at least a penny. Voting rights may not be maintained on a fraction of a share, however.
Submitting a Wells Fargo Fractional-Share Order
WellsTrade’s new fractional-share service isn’t available on its website. To place a whole-dollar order, log into the Wells Fargo mobile app and tap on the brokerage account. Once on the trading hub, tap on the Trade & Quotes tab and scroll down to the Stock Fractions link. Tap on this to get a list of securities that are eligible for whole-dollar trades. Not all stocks and ETFs will be on this list. During our investigation, we found some small-cap stocks on the Nasdaq that weren’t on the list of eligible securities. Nevertheless, we did find major stocks and exchange-traded funds.
In the list of securities, tap on the one you want to purchase. Doing so brings up the whole-dollar order ticket. There are three pre-installed amounts. They are $10, $50, and $100. It’s also possible to enter a custom amount. After entering the amount you want, preview the order. If everything looks right, go ahead and submit it.
The special fractional-share order ticket only uses market orders. WellsTrade’s regular order ticket cannot be used for a whole-dollar trade.
Selling Fractional-Share Positions
Once whole-dollar purchase orders execute, it’s possible to sell them in either whole shares or fractional shares. It is not possible to sell a position such that less than one share remains. Attempting to do so will result in the liquidation of the entire position. 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 impose any surcharges 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.
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Updated on 1/1/2025.
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