A pedestrian walks past a Charles Schwab office in New York.
Scott Eells | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Charles Schwab is yet again lowering the barrier to enter the world of trading stocks. The online broker will soon let its clients trade fractions of stocks, the founder and chairman told the Wall Street Journal in an interview.
In the coming months, Schwab clients that want to own Apple’s stock, won’t need the entire $234.49 it takes to own an entire share of the technology giant. It’s a push to attract a younger demographic, Schwab told the WSJ.
Schwab is not the first company to take a stab at offering partial stock trades. Smaller companies like Stockpile, which was founded in 2010, have provided this type of service for 99 cents per trade. However, Schwab, which holds about $3.72 trillion in client assets, is the first major online broker to allow fractional trading.
Schwab didn’t detail when the launch of the service would occur or if the fractional trades would have fees.
Earlier this month, Schwab dropped all commission fees for U.S. stocks, ETFs and options trades. Brokerage rivals E-Trade and TD Ameritrade subsequently followed, dropping their commission fees as well. Interactive Brokers also slashed commission fees.
Schwab told CNBC earlier this month that broker’s latest move to zero commissions was a longtime goal to deliver to investors.
Shares of Schwab rose nearly 1% on Thursday.
—Read the full Wall Street Journal story here.
