Right...can some one answer this?

If you view the trades for a particular stock, ZOO for example as I recently bought a few, why is it that there are trades for a little as 300 shares?

Surely no one in their right mind would invest 45 when brokerage generally costs 12.50 + stamp duty and then the cost of selling. Also the spread is a massive 6-10% on ZOO.

Is there something I don't know here?

Some people adopt a strategy of picking up a few at a time and building a large quantity of shares in a particular company over a period of time - like you'd drip feed your unit trust. I agree if the price is very low the costs are such that its a strategy I wouldn't favour but some do.

However there are some of us who do buy speculatively in small amounts, personally the smallest amount of anything I will buy is 100 shares, but there must be some who do buy less. Buy what your instincts and pocket say you can and don't worry about other peoples strange buying habits - get more sleep that way! Good Luck!!!

Some brokers, Halifax for instance, charge as little as 1.50, if you use their sharebuilder account. This can be a godsend for small investors that cant afford large figure investmensts and want to buy shares by setting a given amount of money aside each month into their sharebuilder account. You can transfer any ammount of money into such an account and trade in the usual manner.

This explanation wont apply to all the trades you see, but I reckon for an average small investor, it makes sense to use such a facility? We all had to start somewhere I guess;)

NF