Home Buy Stocks with Paypal – Invest in Stocks and Shares with Paypal Today
Kane Pepi

In a time not so long ago, the only way to buy shares was to telephone a traditional stockbroker and wire the funds.

Fast forward to 2024, it’s now possible to trade via your desktop or mobile device and fund your brokerage account with Paypal.

Paypal deposits are inexpensive and instant, so if you’re looking to buy stocks today, we would suggest that you first read our guide. Here, we teach you how to deposit funds to a stockbroker via Paypal and everything else you need to know about stock brokerages that accept Paypal deposits.

Note: Although most Paypal stockbrokers allow you to deposit funds for free, some will charge a fee. Be sure to check this prior to opening an account.

Pros and Cons of Buying Stocks With Paypal

Pros
  • Paypal deposits are usually instant
  • Rarely do brokers charge you to deposit funds with Paypal
  • Increased security as you are not required to enter sensitive debit/credit card details into the broker’s website
  • Withdrawals are much faster than traditional payment methods
  • Get started with a Paypal stockbroker account in less than 10 minutes
Cons
  • The number of Paypal brokers in operation are still thin on the ground
  • Paypal deposits usually come with lower limits in comparison to debit/credit cards or bank wires
  • You will need to verify your Paypal account before you can deposit funds at a broker

How to Buy Stocks With Paypal

In this step-by-step stock investment guide, we teach you how to open an account, verify your identity, deposit funds, and of course, buy stocks.

Note: There might be a slight variation in the required steps based on the broker you are using. With that said, most of the steps outlined below remain constant, so you can use the guidelines regardless of which stockbroker you decide to join.

Step 1: Get Your Paypal Account Opened and Verified

Buying stocks with Paypal allows you to benefit from instant and free depositsWhen using your Paypal account to deposit funds to a stock trading site, you will need to ensure that it is verified. This is to avoid the risks of fraud. As such, before getting to the point of choosing a broker, you should perform the necessary steps with Paypal.

This should include:

  • Opening an account by providing personal information (full name, address, nationality, date of birth, etc.)
  • Confirm your mobile number by entering the PIN that Paypal sends to you via SMS
  • Verify your email address by clicking on the link that Paypal emails to you
  • Add your checking account and link it by confirming the exact amount in dollars and cents that Paypal transfers to your bank account
  • Verify your debit card by confirming the amounts taken from the card

Completing the above can take 24-48 hours, as you’ll need to wait for the deposits to show up in your bank account. Some banks do this instantly, which will mean you can proceed to the next step straight away.

Step 2: Find a Broker That Accepts Paypal

Now that you’ve got your Paypal account verified, you are now ready to find a suitable online stockbroker. Your first port of call should be to check whether or not your chosen broker supports Paypal. If it does, look at such other metrics as regulation, customer support, trading fees and commissions, and what stock markets the broker gives you access to.

Don’t worry, we explain what you need to look for in a broker further down our guide. If you don’t have time to research a Paypal broker yourself, it might be worth considering the trading platform we recommend on this page.

Step 3: Open an Account and Verify Your Identity

Your next port of call will be opening an account with your chosen Paypal stockbroker. The process should take no more than a few minutes. You’ll initially need to enter some personal information, as well as answer some questions about your place of work. This includes:

  • Full Name
  • Date of Birth
  • Home Address
  • Nationality
  • Annual Income
  • Name and Address of Employer
  • Contact Details

You’ll also need to furnish your broker with such information as your prior experience. Next, the Paypal stockbroker will ask you to verify your account. All you need to do is upload a copy of your government-issued ID and a proof of address. The broker should then be able to validate your identity instantly.

Step 4: Deposit Funds With Paypal

Upon heading to the deposit page of your chosen broker, you’ll likely be presented with the option of funding your account with a debit/credit card, bank wire, or an e-wallet. When selecting the Paypal option, you will be asked to enter the amount that you wish to deposit, before entering your Paypal login credentials via a pop-up box.

  • Once you’re logged in, Paypal will confirm the deposit amount and then ask you which funding source you wish to use. This will include the bank account and debit card that you previously verified with Paypal.
  • We would suggest selecting the latter, as this will guarantee that your deposit is processed instantly. Although Paypal will sometimes honor a bank transfer instantly, this isn’t available for all users.

As soon as the deposit is processed by Paypal, the pop-up box will close and you will be taken back to the stockbroker’s website. In the vast majority of cases, the funds should appear in your balance instantly, meaning you’re now ready to buy stocks.

Step 5: Buy Stocks With Paypal

Most Paypal brokers will give you access to multiple stock markets. Although we cover this in greater depth further down, this will usually include major exchanges like the LSE (London Stock Exchange), NASDAQ, and the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange). This means that you will have thousands of equities to choose from, subsequently allowing you to create a diversified portfolio.

Once you have clicked on the specific company you wish to invest in, you will need to:

  • Decide whether you want to go long (buy order) or short (sell order). Take note, you can only short a stock if you are using a CFD broker.
  • Enter the number of shares you wish to trade – most brokers allow you to buy fractional stocks, so you don’t need to buy whole shares.
  • Decide whether you want to take the next available price on your chosen stock, or specify your entry price via limit order.
  • Although optional, we would advise you to set up a stop-loss order to mitigate potential losses, and a take-profit order to automatically lock-in gains.

How do Withdrawals Work at a Paypal Stockbroker?

Once you withdraw your funds back to your Paypal account, you can then cash them out to your bank account When it comes to cashing out your withdrawals, online stockbrokers simply ask you to enter the amount you’d like to cash out, and the request will then be sent to the verification team.

If you were able to bypass the identity verification step when you opened the account, you will be required to verify your account before the broker can process your withdrawal.

Once the online stockbroker has authorized your withdrawal request, the funds will be released to your Paypal account. It rarely takes more than a couple of minutes to show up in your Paypal account.

You can then withdraw the funds back to the bank account that you linked with Paypal.

What Stocks can I Buy With Paypal?

Although the number of online stock brokers accepting Paypal is still minute in comparison to debit or credit cards and bank wires transfers, those that do will typically give you access to a wide range of international markets including:

  • New York Stock Exchange
  • NASDAQ
  • London Stock Stock
  • Tokyo Stock Exchange
  • Stock Exchange of Hong Kong
  • Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX)
  • Frankfurt Stock Exchange
  • Plus Many More

On top of being able to buy individual equities, most Paypal stockbrokers will also give you access to indices. Also referred to as indexes, indices allow you to purchase multiple shares from a single stock exchange. This has the desired effect of providing exposure to the wider stock markets, as opposed to investing in individual companies.

Popular indices that Paypal stockbrokers allow you to invest in are:

  • S&P 500: 500 largest companies operating on the NYSE and NASDAQ
  • Dow Jones: 30 large publically-listed companies in the US. Contains firms from multiple industries and is very indicative of the wider US economy
  • FTSE 100: The FTSE 100 represents the 100 largest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange
  • NASDAQ 100: Contains the 100 largest companies listed on the NASDAQ exchange – which is mainly made up of tech stocks.

How do I Choose a Broker to Buy Stocks With Paypal?

So now that you know how the deposit and withdrawal processes work at Paypal brokers, as well as the many different stocks and indices that you can invest in, we are now going to discuss the other factors that you need to consider when choosing a new trading platform:

  • Regulation

Regardless of which Paypal broker you decide to sign up with, it’s crucial that the platform is regulated. This should be with a tier-one licensing body such as the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), CySEC in Cyprus, or the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). If the broker isn’t licensed; avoid it.

  • Spreads

All Paypal stockbrokers are in the business of making money, so you will need to pay a fee to buy and sell shares. This usually comes in the form of the spread, which is the difference between the buy and sell price of your chosen equity. The higher the spread, the more you need to invest just to break even. As such, focus on Paypal brokers with tight spreads.

  • Trading Commission

On top of the spread, you also need to look at what trading commissions the broker charges. This will be charged every time you buy and sell a stock. If it’s a fixed fee, you will pay the same amount of commission regardless of the trade size. If it’s a variable fee, then you’ll pay more as the size of your order increases. For example, if the broker charges 1% (fixed) and you buy $1,000 worth of Apple stocks, you’ll pay a fee of $10.

  • Tradable Companies

You are best off sticking with Paypal stockbrokers that offer an extensive trading arena. By this, we mean access to heaps of stock exchanges from multiple countries. Think along the lines of the NYSE, LSE, and NASDAQ. Within each exchange, you’ll then want to see hundreds, if not thousands of individual companies listed. This will give you the best chance possible of diversifying your portfolio.

  • Ownership vs CFDs

You need to check whether your chosen stockbroker website gives you access to real-world ownership of shares and CFDs (contract-for-differences). If it’s the former, you’ll be entitled to dividend payments as and when they are distributed by the company. If you buy stocks in the form of CFDs, you won’t be entitled to dividends. You will, however, be able to apply leverage and go short, so assess what it is you are looking for in a Paypal stockbroker platform.

  • Leverage

Leverage allows you to buy and sell stocks with more money than you have in your trading account. As noted above, you can only do this if you are trading stocks and indices in the form of CFDs. If you do, you’ll be able to amplify your market orders. For example, let’s say that you buy $500 worth of Nike stocks at a leverage of 10:1. This means that you are actually buying $5,000 worth of stocks, even though you only have $500 in your account.

  • Customer Support

You also need to explore what the customer support team is like at your chosen Paypal stockbroker. This should include multiple support channels, such as live chat, email, and telephone. It’s best to stick with brokers that offer customer support on a 24/7 basis.

Short-Selling Stocks With Paypal

Are you interested in short-selling stocks, meaning that you are speculating on the value of the company’s shares going down? If so, you will need to use a CFD trading site that accepts Paypal. The end-to-end process works largely the same as placing a buy order but in reverse. However, you still need to know how short-selling works, so check out the example outlined below.

  1. You think that Apple stocks are heavily overvalued, so you want to short-sell its shares
  2. Apple is currently priced at $280, so you place a sell order
  3. The sell order is worth $2,000 and you do not apply any leverage
  4. Two weeks later, the price of Apple shares has dropped to $240, illustrating a decrease of 14.2%
  5. Based on your sell order of $2,000, you are staring at a profit of $284 (less financing fees)
  6. In order to lock-in your gains, you then need to place a buy order

Note: In order to short-sell stocks with Paypal, you are effectively borrowing the asset from the broker. Although you might not be applying leverage, you will still be charged financing fees. This will amount to a percentage of your trade size, and it’s charged for each day that you keep the order open overnight.

Conclusion

In summary, the number of stockbrokers accepting Paypal is still minute in comparison to more traditional payment methods, such as a debit/credit card or bank wire. If you are able to locate a suitable broker that supports e-wallets, you’ll have access to instant and free deposits. This is usually the case when making a withdrawal too.

However, as we have noted throughout our guide, you still need to look at metrics other than just whether or not Paypal is supported. You need to consider things like regulation, spreads, commissions, the number of tradeable equities, and customer support. In doing so, you’ll be sure to find a Paypal stockbroker that best meets your long-term investment needs.

 

Glossary of Stocks Terms

Depiction of a bond certificate and dollar coin illustrating Bonds | Learnbonds
Stock

A stock is a representation of a company’s equity. When a company wants to raise capital, it issues stocks to the public. It is the aggregation of the total stocks owned by one individual that inform their shareholding of the company.

chart and graph depiction of market performance illustrating capital gains | Learnbonds
Shares

A share is an indivisible unit of capital that expresses the ownership relationship between a shareholder and a particular company, mutual fund, REITs or limited partnership. A share indicates a portion of ownership (claim) that one has on a company or fund.

Yiled Sign | Yield, Learnbonds
Dividend

Dividend refers to the portion of the company’s profits that is distributed to its stockholders. It can be on a quarterly or annual basis.

Depiction of an uptrending index fund | Learnbonds
Bull market

A bull market is an economic condition where the stock markets are in an extended period of consistent increase in stock prices.

Depiction of ETF performance |ETFs Learnbonds
Bear Market

A stock market is said to be bearish if it is involved in extended periods of continuous price decrease of the stock prices.

Hand holding different assets - house and cash - illustrating how asset management company works | Learnbonds
Stock Exchange

A stock exchange is an institution or a platform where shares and stocks and a host of other money market instruments are traded.

Depiction of percentage growth rate of funds depicting Fed Rate percentage changes | Learnbonds
Return On Investment (ROI)

The return on investment is the profit you make from trading in or investing in shares and stocks of a particular company. It often comes from selling the investment at a higher price than was originally bought or benefiting from dividends and other profit-sharing schemes as a result of owning and holding onto a particular investment.

Depictio of man thinking of money and risks illustrating a Registered Investment Advisor | Learnbonds
Broker

A broker may be a person or entity that engages in the buying and selling of different types of investments on behalf of other individuals or entities at a fee (or commission).

Depiction of grrowing stacks of coins illustrating fixed income rates | Learnbonds
Day Trading

Day Trading is the practice of buying a money market investment product and selling it as soon it reports price increase or loss, within the same day. Traders engaged in day trading are referred to as “day traders” or “active traders”

Illustration of an interlink depicting P2P lending | Learnbonds
Arbitrage

Arbitrage is the act of buying and selling security at different stock exchanges or markets with varying prices. If, for instance, stock ABC sells at $11 on one exchange and $11.75 on the other, arbitraging involves buying from at the low price exchange and profiting by selling it at the higher-priced exchange.

Calculator, percentages and form illustrating a Tax-Advantaged account | Learnbonds
Index

A stock index is a statistical measure of the change in the stock and securities market. It comprises a hypothetical portfolio of different companies whose change in prices is calculated to determine market performance.

chart and graph depiction of market performance illustrating capital gains | Learnbonds
Initial Public Offering (IPO)

The Initial Public Offering refers to the sale of company stock to the public for the first time. It is the act of taking a company public and is highly regulated by such financial regulators like the SEC in the USA and FCA in the UK.

Options

Options are derivative financial instruments whose price is based on the value of their underlying tradable security like shares and stocks. They are contracts that give the holder an option to buy or sell the underlying asset at a later date. Unlike futures, an options contract holder has the choice to buy/sell or not.

Call options

This is an options contract that gives the holder an option to buy the underlying asset before the expiry date.

Sell options

This option gives its holder the choice of selling the underlying asset before its expiry date

Mutual Funds

A mutual fund refers to a company that pools funds from different investors and invests these funds in stocks, bonds, and other financial market securities. They then distribute the capital gains from these invests to their members.

Over-the-Counter

The process through which stocks for companies that are not listed with accredited stock exchanges like the NYSE are traded. It is a broker-dealer network for unlisted stocks for companies that do not meet listing requirements set by the organized exchanges.

Overbought

A stock is said to be overbought if it is traded excessively over a short period of time and at unjustifiably high prices.

Oversold

A stock is said to be oversold if it is consistently traded below its true value.

Ask Price

Also referred to as the offer or asking price, this refers to the lowest price that the seller will take for a stock.

Bid Price

Bid price refers to the maximum price that a buyer is willing to pay for a stock.

Volume

In the stock trading context, Volume refers to the number of shares that change hands within a given period of time, be it a day, month or annually. It is trading/investment indicator where rising trade volumes point to a healthy stock while dwindling volumes are indicators of investor pessimism towards a stock.

Volatility

Refers to the statistical measure of the change in price of a stock over a given period of time. It is a measure of the rate and the time it takes for a stock price to move from high to low and how long it remains within a certain price range. The higher the volatility, the higher the risk.

52-Week High

This refers to the highest closing price recorded by a given stock in the last 52 weeks.

52-Week Low

This refers to the lowest closing price that a particular stock recorded in the last 52 weeks.

Bid-Ask Spread

The bid-ask spread refers to the difference between the lowest price that a seller is willing to take for their stock and the highest price that a buyer is willing pay for the stock. It is the difference between the quoted ask and bid prices.

Market Order

A market order is an instruction by an investor to the broker or brokerage platform asking them to buy/sell a stock or any other security at the best price available at that moment. It is often issued when an investor wishes to enter or exit the market quickly and at the prevailing rates.

Limit Order

A limit order is an order that triggers a sale or buy when a predetermined or better price is met. For a buy limit order, the buy order is executed once the set limit price or a better price is triggered. The sell limit order on the hand triggers the sale of stocks if the limit price or better price is hit.

Stop Order

Also referred to as a stop loss order, it is an order that triggers a buy or sell action once a predetermined price level is hit. It is designed to help you minimize possible loss on a given trade should the markets move against your bet.

Take Profit

Take profit is a type of limit order dictating the price level at which the broker or brokerage platform is to close a trade for profit.

Capital Gains

Capital gain refers to the value rise of a tradable financial instrument that makes its selling price higher than the buying price. It can also be referred to as the profit realized from liquidating a capital investment like stocks.

ETFs

An ETF is a collection of many tradable instruments like bonds, stocks, and commodities. These are listed on the exchanges and traded like ordinary stocks.

Debt-to-Equity Ratio

The debt-to-equity (D/E) ratio is a financial ration tool used to measure the financial health of a company by gauging value of its equity in relation to debt. It is achieved by dividing the company’s total liabilities in relation to its shareholder’s equity.

Dividend Investing

This is an investment strategy where the investor only buy shares that have consistently paid out high dividends in the past or others with the fastest dividend rates. Dividend investing strategy advocates are more interested in how much a shares pays in dividends than its price fluctuations.

Growth Stocks

Growth stocks refers to the stocks of companies that are expected to grow at a faster rate than the industry average and report consistent and sustainable cashflows. The company sales and revenues are also expected to increase at a faster than that of an average company in the same industry.

Penny Stocks

These are also referred to as micro-cap or nano-cap stocks and refers to the stocks of relatively small companies valued less than $5 and only trade via the Over-The-Counter markets.

Blue Chip

A blue chip refers to a nationally recognized and financially sound company with a long and stable record of consistent growth. It is company whose financial might and nature of operation make it well suited to face turmoil and remain profitable in the uncertain economic conditions..

Short Selling

Short selling is a trade/investment strategy where the investor is banking on the decline of the shares of a particular company. They therefore borrows these shares, sells them at the current market price and buys them back after they lose value, effectively profiting from the price difference.

Yield

Yield refers to the profit/earnings generated from investing in a particular stock or market instrument over a given period of time and is expressed a percentage of the stock’s market value, face value or as percentage of invested amounts.

Capital Stock

Capital stock, also referred to outstanding shares, refers to all the regular shares issued by a company and held by all its shareholders including the restricted/locked-in shares held by company insiders, executives, and institutional investors. The number of capital stock is used in calculating key metrics including cash-flow per-share and earnings per share.

Earnings Per Share (EPS)

EPS refers to the monetary value, the profit or earnings attributable to each outstanding shares held by a company. It is a financial ratio that is arrived at by dividing the company’s profit by its outstanding shares of the common stock.

Price Earning Ratio (PER)

Also referred to as Price-to-earnings ratio, PER is a financial metrics tools used to check if a company’s shares are over/undervalued by dividing the shares current market price with its earnings-per-share.

Float

A company’s flat refers to the number of regular shares issued to investors that are available for trading. The float shares figure is arrived at by subtracting the locked-in shares held by company insiders and executives from its capital stock.

Gap-up Stocks

Gap up stocks refer to company stocks that open the day trading at relatively higher prices than their previous day’s closing price. This is often attributed to the after-market trading activity.

Gap-Down Stocks

Gap down stocks refers to company stocks that open the day trading at relatively lower prices that the previous day’s closing price. For instance if a company stock closes the day trading at $50 but opens the following day trading at $45, it is said to have a 5-point gap down.

Stock Buyback

Stock buyback, also referred to as share repurchase, occurs when a publicly listed corporation uses a part of its revenues to buy back its shares from the marketplace. The move effectively reduces the number of company shares in circulation, which translates to an increased share price.

HOLD

HOLD is a financial recommendation issued by a qualified financial institutions or financial analyst advising investors/traders not to buy or sell a particular stock. It is a no-action situation where long position traders are advised not to sell and others investors advised not to buy into the stock.

Resistance Levels

This refers to the upper-most price level that a particular stock or any other security reaches but doesn’t exceed due to dwindling number of buyers and an increasing number of sellers.

Macroeconomic

Is a branch of economics that’s concerned with the study of how the economy and different large-scale markets are structured, how they behave, and how they perform.

RSI

Relative Strength Index is a technical momentum indicator used in market analysis to determine if a stock is overbought or oversold by measuring the magnitude of a recent bullish or bearish price run. It has a scale of 0-100 where RSI readings of 70+ indicate a stock is overbought while an RSI reading below 30 is an indicator of an oversold security.

Moving Average

Moving Averages is a statistical calculation that is specially designed to identify the arithmetic mean of a given number of data sets or range of prices calculated over a given period of time. Each of these data set or price range is created by the average/mean price for that subset. For instance, a single data point on a moving averages scale may represent the average stock price for a day or trading session.

Bollinger Bands

Bollinger Bands are a technical indicator tool characterized by two statistical carts that run alongside each other indicating the changes in prices and volatility of a financial instrument like stock or commodity over a given period of time.

Fibonacci Retracements

Fibonacci retracements refer to two horizontal lines that use the Fibonacci numbers to measure the percentage of price retracement in a bid to indicate where the resistance and support are most likely to occur.

FAQs

Can I buy stocks with Paypal instantly?

Is it safe to buy stocks with Paypal?

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How do I fund my Paypal account?

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Is it worth buying stock CFDs with Paypal?

Kane Pepi

Kane Pepi

Kane holds academic qualifications in the finance and financial investigation fields. With a passion for all-things finance, he currently writes for a number of online publications.