Shares in Uber Technologies Inc., the company that operates Uber, are trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol UBER. This is a detailed step-by-step guide to buy Uber shares.
You need a brokerage account to buy Uber
To buy the Uber stock, you first need a brokerage account with access to the New York Stock Exchange. You can't buy shares directly without a broker – you must first open a brokerage account.
Once your account opening application is approved, the next step is to send money to your account, usually by wire transfer from your bank (some brokers may also offer other funding methods, such as with a card payment).
Displaying Uber stock quotes
The brokerage firm typically provides a website, software platform or mobile app (often all of these) where you will be able to manage your account and buy and sell stocks.
When you have that ready, just find the Uber stock by its ticker symbol UBER to display quotes (live share prices) and trade. Before you place actual trades, make sure you understand the basic concepts of stock trading.
Bid vs. ask stock price
One of the things to understand is the difference between bid and ask price:
Bid is the price at which you can immediately sell
Ask, also known as offer price, is the price at which you can immediately buy (so this will be the price to watch in this case, when you want to buy the stock).
The ask price is typically a little higher than the bid price, although with popular stocks such as Uber the difference is very small.
Market vs. limit order to buy Uber
Once you see the prices, you can actually buy the shares. You do that by placing a buying order in your broker's app or trading platform. There are various types of trading order most brokers allow you to place, but for the beginning it is enough to understand the two basic types:
A market order instructs your broker to buy shares immediately at the best price you can currently get in the market (the so called market price, hence market order). When buying a smaller amount of shares, this will usually be very close to the ask price you see in your app at the moment. However, if you are buying a larger number of shares or the price jumps before your order reaches the market, you may actually be executed at a price that is a bit higher than the ask. The advantage of market order is certain and fast execution; the disadvantage is that you have no control over the price you will pay.
If you want to make sure you won't pay more than a particular price, you can use the other type of order – the limit order. As its name suggests, it allows you to set a limit, the maximum price you are willing to pay for the shares. Your order may be executed immediately at that limit price or even at a better price if there are other people willing to sell the shares at that price, but if there are no shares at or below your limit, you may need to wait until the Uber stock goes a bit lower. The advantage of limit order is that you have control over the maximum price you will pay; the disadvantage is that your order may take a long time to execute, or may never execute if the stock continues to go higher.
Deciding whether to use market or limit order is a matter of your priority: Is it to get in at any price (use market order), or get in but only at a good price, and not at any cost (use limit order)?
Number of shares to buy
Regardless of which type of order you choose, you also need to enter the number of shares you want to buy. Remember you are entering number of shares, not the desired value of your investment, so if you want to invest let's say $10,000, you must divide that number by the Uber stock price to get number of shares.
If you have limited experience with the trading app or with stock trading in general, double check all your order's attributes before confirming it.
Also, if you are a beginner, do not take a position that is too big for your capital, your risk tolerance, and your experience. It is often best to start with smaller positions and gradually increase size as you become more skilled and more comfortable with stock trading.
About Uber IPO
Uber started trading on the NYSE on Friday 10 May 2019. In one of the biggest initial public offerings (IPO) ever (the ninth largest at that time), the company sold shares worth more than $8 billion. The IPO share price of $45 valued the entire company at about $75 billion at that time.