[net.invest] Stock commissions from full service brokers

koch@elgar.DEC (Kevin Koch LTN1-2/B17 DTN229-6274) (03/27/85)

>    I don't know where you are buying your stocks and bonds but the rates you
> quote are out of sight. The only way you would pay 2-5% on stock commissions
> is if you make odd lot purchases and deal with a full service broker. Even
> a full service broker wouldn't charge that much for 100 share lots.  

     Here is a somewhat out of date distillation of Merrill Lynch's 
commission schedule for stocks.  What I have done is compute how much 
the original stock has to go up in order to break even on a 'round 
trip' (i.e. buy and sell the stock).  You'll see that the lower the 
price of the stock, the higher the commission, when expressed as a 
percentage of the stock price.  The extremes are 11% for a $1 stock
and .92% for a $100 stock. 

		AMOUNT STOCK MUST GO UP TO BREAK EVEN
	SHARE
	PRICE	BUY/SELL 100 SHARES	BUY/SELL 200 SHARES
	-----	--------		--------
	$1	.23			.15
	$2	.28			.20
	$5	.45			.37
	$10	.69			.54
	$15	.86			.70
	$20	1.03			.82
	$25	1.22			.97
	$30	1.35			1.09
	$35	1.47			1.22
	$40	1.59			1.34
	$50	1.84			1.59
	$60	1.84			1.84
	$70	1.84			2.09
	$80	1.84			2.34
	$90	1.84			2.59
	$100	1.84			2.84

Kevin Koch  (Koch is it)
...decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-handel!koch

Posted:	Tue 26-Mar-1985 12:09 Littleton Time
To:	RHEA::DECWRL::"net.invest"