I have been looking into financial management apps recently. The number of apps available and VC money invested boggles the mind. I find that most tend to have an area of focus such as:
- Debt Management
- Budgeting and Spend Tracking
- Savings
- Investing
The investing apps are the ones that are pushing more traditional brokers to offer zero-dollar trades. In addition to being inexpensive (but not free), many of the investing apps allow for users to buy a fraction of one share of stock. Tech Crunch featured the announcement from investment app provider, Robinhood that they are now offering the opportunity to invest as little as $0.01 in order to attract as many small investors as possible:
One share of Amazon stock costs more than $1,700, locking out less-wealthy investors. So to continue its quest to democratize stock trading, Robinhood is launching fractional share trading this week. This lets you buy 0.000001 shares, rounded to the nearest penny, or just $1 of any stock, with zero fee.
The ability to buy by millionth of a share lets Robinhood undercut Square Cash’s recently announced fractional share trading, which sets a $1 minimum for investment. Robinhood users can sign up here for early access to fractional share trading. “One of our core values is participation is power,” says Robinhood co-CEO Vlad Tenev. “Everything we do is rooted in this. We believe that fractional shares have the potential to open up investing for even more people.”
Overview by Sarah Grotta, Director, Debit and Alternative Products Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
