Generally I have suggested people in my career that buying odd lot shares (buying under 100 shares) is not the best idea, unless perhaps if one is buying BRK.A or BRK.B.
I would rather be dollar cost averaging using the S&P 500 Index. Reason:
1. own the 500 largest US listed companies instead of a few.
2. monthly dividends.
3. able to reinvest dividends each month which over time increases the number of shares one will own and the greater amount of dividends paid.
4. diversification.
5. historically, this non-managed index has tended to outperform roughly 80% of all mutual funds. The longer the time period, the greater odds the index beats the funds.
For the other posters:
1. RE: MGM:
There will always be stocks that one can show if you just bought when and held now, you could have made whatever. This is not constructive or relevant investment planning.
There are also many stocks that fell 50-100% over the last 2 years. There are stock that never recovered from the 2000, 73-74, 87, and 29 Bear markets/ crashes.
A stock that drops $53 to $2.00 is a 96% drop.
That same stock that goes from $2.00 to $4.00 is a 100% gain, from that low, but still a 92% drop from the high.
Sure MGM or any stock could go higher, but the opposite is also a risk.
There is also the element of risk and overall objectives that one needs to consider.
2. RE: mutual funds:
It would be incorrect to say, “(mutual funds…have) Same return – less risk.”
- mutual funds are not all the same.
- are not always diversified.
- do not all have the same return.
- do not have the same risk.
- do not all have the same investment objectives.
- do not have the same fund manager.
- do not have the same costs and fees.
- are not any less risky compared to other investments.
You may also want to consider doing this in a ROTH IRA.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roth_IRA
“Should I open a Roth IRA or just an IRA?”http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;…

In most cases it really isn’t how many shares you own, but rather where the stock goes from your initial position. For instance, you could have bought one share of lets say…MGM 3 weeks ago at a little over $1, and today it’d be worth around $8.00. That’s a humongous 800% return.