Let me tell you a funny story. I use fidelity and there are certain foreign stocks they charge a $50 fee on. I planned to open a small position and come back later after doing my full due diligence. I figured if I had just a couple shares I wouldn’t lose much even if it tanked entirely, and I didn’t yet know how to do a watch list and wasnt interested in learning. So I bought my three shares, in the process clicking through the warnings about extra fees. I am the proud owner of three shares worth about $30.

They cost me $80 total to buy, and would cost me an additional $50 to sell.

Point is, on very small transactions it is easy for fees to eat up 33% or more.