The old maxim that "it takes money to make money" is certainly true - but then many retail investors believe a twisted version of this, that it takes big money to make money.
Frankly, this way of thinking is a frustrating "obstacle" to profits. It teases the promise of big fortunes but stops so many investors from actually making the move they need to get there.
I'm here to tell you this "obstacle" no longer exists.
Great fortunes are attainable - for anyone. And that journey can start with any amount of money - as little as $100... or even $50.
Thanks to the advent of commission-free trading and the ability to buy "fractional shares" through companies like Robinhood or Charles Schwab, a revolution has swept over the stock market - and retail investors are the big winners. These changes make it possible (read: affordable) to buy small slices, or fractional shares, of an individual stock, no matter how expensive its trading price.
Each week, in my Total Wealth newsletter, I'll invite my subscribers to take part in this revolution by spotlighting the best places they can take that extra $100, $250, or $500- and put it to work.
And today, I thought I'd get started by showing how you can grab a piece of a stock that I believe still has a lot of room to run - and that would've otherwise been too pricey for most investors...
No Matter How You Slice It, It's Still a Fortune
Rather than shelling out $3,415 for a single share of Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), or $2,415 for a single share of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL), or $604 for a share of Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA), or $130 for a share of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), you could simply split $100 four ways to grab $25 stakes in each company.
The beauty of fractional shares is that the value of your "slice" moves in perfect alignment with the full share of the company. If the stock gains 35% or 50%, then your fractional stake moves up in lockstep - by the same amount and during the same time period.
But if I were starting today, and I only had $100, I would be taking a serious look at e-commerce innovator Shopify Inc. (NYSE: SHOP).
And folks, this company has plenty of room to grow from here.
A lot of investors will view SHOP's current trading price of about $1,366 as dauntingly high - and will likely abandon it for "cheaper" stocks.
That would be a big mistake.
This is a company that's leading the surge in online shopping - something we've all been doing more and more of over the past year or so and likely won't be giving up anytime soon, even with things going back to normal. Shopify's know-how is especially valuable because it helps other merchants get into the e-commerce game. The company's offerings include web and mobile storefronts, physical retail locations, pop-up shops, and social media storefronts.
Additionally, it enables its customers to manage products and inventory, process orders and payments, fulfill and ship orders, obtain new buyers and build customer relationships, and leverage analytics and reporting.
Basically, if you have a business and you want to sell your products online, SHOP helps you make that happen.
The company boasts more than 107 million registered users, and it was responsible for 8.6% of e-commerce sales in 2020. That puts SHOP ahead of Walmart (with 5.8% market share), eBay (with 4.9% market share), and even Apple (which has 3.5% market share). The only company that SHOP trails is - no surprise here - Amazon.
In 2020, while most major retailers were scrambling to stay afloat, SHOP posted revenue of $2.93 billion - zooming 85.6% from the $1.58 billion it logged in 2019.
That's incredible growth right there, and in the middle of a pandemic, mind you - but that's not even the best part. The company's profit margin is a whopping 46.67%. To put that number in context, consider that the profit margins for Amazon, Walmart, eBay, and Apple are just 6.42%, 2.18%, 25.94%, and 23.45, respectively.
The bottom line: SHOP makes serious money - by helping its customers do the same.
And now, thanks to fractional shares and commission-free trading, you can own your own piece of SHOP for just $100, or $50 - even $25 or $10, if you'd like. The important thing is, no matter how much you pay and how you slice it, you'll still own a stake in the company, and you'll still profit from its growth.
There's no longer any barrier standing between you and financial freedom. All you need to do is get started.
And SHOP isn't the only stock where I'm seeing explosive growth. I'm predicting that a $353 billion tidal wave of money will impact five small, very specific stocks. This is one of my biggest calls yet - in my whole career of big calls - and it's generating some of the most incredible 12- and 18-month stock performance projection profiles ever seen. Take a look for yourself...
Follow Money Morning on Facebook and Twitter.
About the Author
Shah Gilani boasts a financial pedigree unlike any other. He ran his first hedge fund in 1982 from his seat on the floor of the Chicago Board of Options Exchange. When options on the Standard & Poor's 100 began trading on March 11, 1983, Shah worked in "the pit" as a market maker.
The work he did laid the foundation for what would later become the VIX - to this day one of the most widely used indicators worldwide. After leaving Chicago to run the futures and options division of the British banking giant Lloyd's TSB, Shah moved up to Roosevelt & Cross Inc., an old-line New York boutique firm. There he originated and ran a packaged fixed-income trading desk, and established that company's "listed" and OTC trading desks.
Shah founded a second hedge fund in 1999, which he ran until 2003.
Shah's vast network of contacts includes the biggest players on Wall Street and in international finance. These contacts give him the real story - when others only get what the investment banks want them to see.
Today, as editor of Hyperdrive Portfolio, Shah presents his legion of subscribers with massive profit opportunities that result from paradigm shifts in the way we work, play, and live.
Shah is a frequent guest on CNBC, Forbes, and MarketWatch, and you can catch him every week on Fox Business's Varney & Co.