With Stake, you are able to buy and sell securities in fractional amounts. This means that you can buy a whole dollar amount of a security (i.e. $1000 of Berkshire Hathaway Class A).
Orders & Execution
Fractional shares can only be traded on market and stop orders.
When buying fractional shares, you set the dollar ($) amount you want to buy. When selling it's the number of shares you want to sell (i.e 4.3142 shares).
When you execute a trade for a fractional amount of more than 1 share (i.e 5.6513 shares) you will receive two confirmations. 1 for the whole share component, 1 for the fractional part.
Fractional orders are also subject to NBBO rules of the US market, so regardless of the size you trade, you'll be getting the best price in the market at the time.
Ownership
Fractional shares are held in your name with our broker and kept in custody by Velox Clearing LLC (the custodian), so full beneficial interest (things like dividends etc) are assigned to you.
As the US market operates on a books and records basis, shares are grouped at the bank level who then report the holdings to the exchange. The fractions are then split up between the broker’s clients (you and others on Stake etc).
Dividends
You will receive any dividend of a share in proportion to your holding.
For example, if you own 3.25 shares in a company that pays a $10 dividend, you will receive $32.50 in dividends.
Voting rights
Fractional shares do not have voting rights for the fraction of a share owned.
Transfers
Only whole shares can be transferred. If you want to transfer your shares to another broker, you can transfer your whole shares but you will need to sell your fractional shares.