How to Buy Roku Stock (ROKU)

Roku is the world’s leading streaming device company with over 30 million accounts and growing. As more consumers shift from traditional cable to streaming content, Roku is well-positioned to gain market share and return long term value to shareholders. Be sure to check out my previous article for more in-depth analysis: 5 Reasons Why Roku is a Good Long Term Buy.
Roku trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol: ROKU. The stock does not pay a dividend.
If you want to buy shares of Roku stock, then here’s what you need to do.
1. Open a Brokerage Account
There are two different types of brokerage accounts: discount online brokers and full service brokers.
The cheapest option is to open a discount brokerage account because they charge lower trade commissions, lower overall fees and make things easier for the average investor.
If you need more hands on services and investment insight, then try opening a full service brokerage account.
Here are my favorites:
- Ally Invest: Best online discount broker with $4.95 stock trades and zero minimums
- Fidelity: Best full-service broker with free trades and zero minimums
- Robinhood: Best Free stock trading broker with $0 trading commissions (Good for younger investors)
If you want to get started with a little bit of money, then you can purchase fractional shares using M1finance and Stash.
2. Decide How Much You Want to Invest
Roku stock is currently trading for around $120. If you don’t have enough money for 1 share, you can buy fractional shares with Stash Invest.
3. Place Your Trade
Once your account is setup, it’s time to purchase some shares. When you enter the ticker into your account, you will see two numbers: the bid and the ask.
It’s a gap between the highest and lowest price buyers and sellers are willing to pay. It’s a good strategy to buy on dips, meaning buying the stock near the lowest bid or the day’s lowest price.
When making your trade, you will be asked to enter the following:
- Number of Shares: Total number of shares you are buying
- Order Type: Market or Limit Order
- Execution Time: GTD (Good until Cancelled) or For today only
A market order is when your order will be filled immediately regardless of price. This is best for long term investors but is dangerous when a stock is soaring quickly in value. You can sometimes buy at the peak then watch the stock fall in price shortly after.
A limit order is when you set a maximum price you are willing to pay for a stock. This is a much better strategy and lets you prevent overpaying on a stock. If the stock doesn’t reach your limit, then the order never executes.
Submit your order and now your order will be filled by your broker. Be sure to refresh your account until the order status has changed to filled.
Once your order has been filled, you are officially a Roku shareholder!
Disclosure: I own shares of Roku (ROKU).