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  1. Home
  2. / Jim Cramer

Jim Cramer: Think Fractional Shares Look Boring? I've Got a Story for You

Let me tell you about a time in the '80s when I was trying to get clients some Berkshire shares -- and how it relates to now, when you can buy fractional shares of terrific companies like Amazon.
By JIM CRAMER
Jul 02, 2020 | 01:24 PM EDT
Stocks quotes in this article: AMZN, TSLA, GOOGL, SHOP, GS, WKHS, NKLA

Speculators you have had the run of the joint.

You've seen the cruise ships that I know you buy do very well, considering they can't cruise and have had to take down so much debt that to call them laden is to be way too optimistic. If they can't cruise within a year, I don't think they can survive unless we get a vaccine. You've also gotten huge profits out of the airlines, even as the airline stocks, even as the airlines themselves, are bleeding from the eyeballs. There's been obscene amounts of money made in the vaccine companies, some that are good and some that don't have a wing or a prayer. And the electric vehicles? Bountiful gains that are unimaginable.

So, now I want to suggest you do something different, something antithetical to your style, but so available as to be too logical to ignore. I want you to take some of your amazing gains and invest, not trade, but invest in some new things that would allow you some peace of mind and make it so you are in a much more stable and long-term sensible position.

I want you to diversify and to do that I need you to put some money into an index fund, preferably the S&P 500, because it's about as polar opposite as what you are trading in -- and the rest?

The rest goes to fractional shares, a gift from the electronic brokers that simply isn't being used and yet makes so much sense.

Right now, let's say if you wanted to buy some of the hottest stocks in the market, and some really do like it hot, you can't, especially if you are a penny stock trader, and you know what I think of those stocks: Sell, sell, sell.

It's not fair, say, that the big boys, the huge institutions, can scoop up any of the thousand dollar stocks, the Amazons (AMZN) or Teslas (TSLA) or Alphabets (GOOGL) or Shopifys (SHOP) without a problem, but you would have only a couple of shares, not enough to make you feel you even have skin in the game.

But you could buy fractional shares over time and feel more invested even if it is illusory.

It would be easier if they would just split the stocks. Who wouldn't want a 10-for-one split so you could buy the stock for $30 a share. The answer? The institutions don't want it, because they pay commissions per share, so if Amazon does split 10 for one, they would pay 10-times the commissions they currently pay. Naturally, they have fought Amazon hard not to split, which is why you have been psychologically denied to buy it, especially if you are a penny stock aficionado.

Now, however, you can buy fractional shares of terrific companies like Amazon or the other members of the $1,000 and over club, Alphabet, Tesla or Shopify, all of which have been prone to swoon but you can get started now and work it in, meaning try to get the rest of what you want over time.

I know it's not exciting, but let me tell you a quick story. There was a time when investor Lee Cooperman ran the research department at Goldman Sachs (GS) and he was an amazing teacher. He had me read the shareholder letter of Berkshire Hathaway -- mind you this was in the '80s -- and then we would talk about it. Lee's the master, so I read everything I could get my hands on, including many annuals from back years. We had a nice talk and he said that I should buy it for clients. We didn't have discretion, so I tried to sell the stock to everyone who would buy it. They wouldn't touch it or listen to me. Why? Because it was around $200, way too much for anyone to buy in bulk so to speak.

Now it's at $268,050.

Maybe they would have listened to me if Warren Buffett had elected to split the stock. He never did.

I could have made my client fortunes if they hadn't cared about the dollar amount. How about five shares, I begged, people, just five.

No dice.

They left a million on the table. You don't have to. You can create your own fractional shares to own right next to your trading in Workhorse (WKHS) or Nicola (NKLA) or a penny stock too small to be mentioned here.

(AMZN, GOOGL and GS are holdings in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS member club. Want to be alerted before Jim Cramer buys or sells these stocks? Learn more now.)

Get an email alert each time I write an article for Real Money. Click the "+Follow" next to my byline to this article.

Action Alerts PLUS, which Cramer co-manages as a charitable trust, is long AMZN, GOOGL, and GS.

TAGS: Investing | Stocks | Technology | Jim Cramer |

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