Interactive Brokers (Nasdaq: IBKR), an automated global electronic broker, today announced the launch of fractional shares trading for European stocks and ETFs.
Clients of Interactive Brokers can now buy and sell fractional shares of eligible U.S. and European stocks and ETFs, providing a simple way to build a balanced portfolio and invest in shares regardless of the share price. Fractional shares are stock units that amount to less than one full share.
With fractional shares, there is no minimum for European shares and investors can invest in U.S. shares with as little as USD 1.00, irrespective of the stock price. Investors can use fractional shares to maximize returns by putting small cash balances to work quickly, instead of holding cash and potentially earning lower returns. In addition, Interactive Brokers offers cash quantity stock orders, which lets clients place orders in a specific cash amount. Fractional shares will automatically be bought or sold if the cash amount does not line up with a whole number of shares.
“Interactive Brokers was the first big broker to introduce fractional trading in U.S. shares and it’s been very popular with our clients,” said Steve Sanders, EVP of Marketing and Product Development at Interactive Brokers. “Adding European fractional shares gives investors the opportunity to trade across markets in a more affordable way, in addition to the benefit of investing in more stocks to help clients achieve diversified portfolios.”
Fractional shares trading is available on all of Interactive Brokers’ powerful trading platforms including IBKR GlobalTrader, a simple mobile trading application for investors to trade stocks around the world. European stocks and ETFs listed on select exchanges, and with average daily volume above $5 million and market cap above $5 billion, are eligible for European fractional shares trading.