Nvidia, best known for manufacturing graphics processing units and integrated circuits, has been a hot topic among investors during the artificial intelligence boom. Due to a massive demand for its chips, the company has a market cap of over $4.5 trillion. Here's what to consider when deciding if Nvidia has a place in your investment portfolio, and how to buy it.
How to buy Nvidia stock
You can buy Nvidia stock through a brokerage account. Add money to the account, search within the brokerage's platform using the symbol "NVDA," decide how much stock to buy and submit the trade. You cannot buy Nvidia stock directly from Nvidia the company.
Here's the simple way to buy Nvidia stock:
1. Open a brokerage account.
2. Add money to the account.
3. Search for Nvidia stock within your brokerage account's platform using the ticker "NVDA."
4. Fill out the order, indicating whether you want to buy the stock in dollars or shares and how much of the stock you want to buy.
5. Submit the order.
» Check out the best brokerage accounts for stock trading
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Here's more information about each step:
1. Do your research into Nvidia
Investing in a top-performing S&P 500 stock might be tempting, but choosing which stock to buy based on how it’s currently performing — or even how it’s performed in the past — won’t tell you everything you need to know.
Make sure you do some qualitative and quantitative research on a company you’re considering investing in to get the full picture. This can mean looking into Nvidia’s leadership, competition and financials. It can also mean investigating any Nvidia competitors.
You’ll also want to think big picture when deciding what stock to pick, like what your investment goals are and if Nvidia might be part of the path toward achieving them.
2. Decide if Nvidia makes sense for you
Stocks are long-term investments. It can be good to prioritize an emergency fund and your short-term financial goals before you consider investing. Short-term financial goals might look like paying down debt, saving money to travel or planning for home improvements.
As a general rule of thumb, it’s recommended that you only invest in stocks with money you won’t use in the next five years — this allows your investment time to survive any market fluctuations.
When it comes to investing, you also don’t want all your eggs in one basket. Having a diverse portfolio of investments means if one type of investment falls, those losses could be offset if a different type of investment rises. So if the majority of the stocks you own fall into the technology category, you might consider investing in something different to reduce the risk of big losses if the technology sector takes a dive.
» Dive deeper: See our list of best-performing AI stocks
3. Open a brokerage account
If you don’t have a brokerage account already, you’ll need one to buy Nvidia stock. But opening an account online is quick and simple — it should only take about 15 minutes, and then you’re ready to buy. It’s a good idea to double-check that the online broker you’re signing up for offers the specific investment you’re interested in.
» Want some practice first? Try paper trading
When weighing brokers, look for one that has low or no account fees, requires no account minimum and has positive ratings from users.
If you’re not in the financial position to buy a full share of Nvidia, or you just don't want a full share, it might be worthwhile to look into brokers that offer fractional shares. This would allow you to buy a portion of Nvidia stock as opposed to a full share. That’s because fractional shares are based on a dollar amount instead of the number of shares.
» Ready to get started? Read our full guide on how to open a brokerage account
4. Consider how much to invest in Nvidia
You’ll want to think about how many shares of Nvidia you want to buy and what type of order you want to use.
How many shares of Nvidia you buy is up to you. But you’ll want to consider what kinds of investments you already have and how comfortable you are in your other financial goals before making a decision.
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After you’ve decided how many shares to buy, there are a few ways to make your purchase, including market, limit, stop-loss and stop-limit orders. Generally, market orders are the easiest for beginners.
Looking to build your investing portfolio further? The process of buying stocks is generally the same across the board. Check out our full guide on how to buy stocks for more info.
Neither the author nor editor held positions in the aforementioned investments at the time of publication.
