Recently, I’ve been looking into ETF investing in Taiwan and noticed that many beginners get stuck on the same problem: they want to buy ETFs, but they don’t have enough funds to purchase a full lot. This is actually a very real and practical concern.

In Taiwan’s stock market, the basic trading unit is one lot, which equals 1,000 shares. Taking the Yuanta Taiwan 50 as an example, its recent trading price is roughly in the NT$160 range. Buying one lot would cost over NT$160,000, which is definitely a substantial expense for retail investors. But the good news is that Taiwan has already allowed fractional-share trading for a long time—you can start investing by buying just a few dozen or a few hundred shares.

Fractional-share ETFs are ETFs purchased in amounts less than 1,000 shares. For example, if you only want to invest NT$5,000, you can buy about 30 shares. Trading is split between intraday and after-hours: during market hours, orders can only be placed electronically, while after-hours trading can be done by phone or at the counter. The matching times are also different—during the day, matching happens starting at 9:10 AM, once every minute, while after-hours matching is done all at once at 2:30 PM.

As for fees, fractional shares and full lots use the same calculation method: share price multiplied by number of shares multiplied by 0.1425%, then multiplied by the broker’s discount. However, most brokers today have lowered the minimum fee from NT$20 to NT$1, so buying 200 shares would cost about NT$30. Interestingly, if you buy 1,000 shares as fractional shares in one go, your actual fee might be roughly the same as buying one full lot—provided that each order amount exceeds the minimum charge.

In addition to the fee, when you sell, you also have to pay a 0.1% transaction tax to the government. So, all in all, selling 200 shares of the Yuanta Taiwan 50 would cost around NT$78.

Placing an order is simple: in your broker app, select “Intraday fractional shares” or “After-hours fractional shares,” then choose buy or sell, and enter the number of shares and the price. But note that fractional shares and full lots trade in separate matching pools, so the quoted prices may differ, and liquidity is usually lower—especially for less popular ETFs, which may take longer to execute.

If you think the waiting time for fractional-share trading is too long, there’s another option: CFD contracts for difference. The advantage of CFDs is that they support leverage, so you can invest with less capital—for example, 10x leverage would require only one-tenth of the funds. You can also go long or short, and trade 24 hours a day, without being limited by intraday or after-hours rules. The downside is that there is some spread cost, but many platforms have already removed trading fees.

Many people worry about whether they can receive dividends if they buy fractional shares. In fact, you don’t need to worry. Whether you hold 1,000 shares or just 1 share, you can receive dividends normally—the more shares you hold, the more dividends you receive. So if you want to invest regularly in high-dividend ETFs using a dollar-cost averaging approach, accumulating gradually with fractional shares is completely fine.

Overall, fractional ETF trading in Taiwan is already very mature, and fees have been pushed down to very low levels. If your funds are limited but you want to start investing, fractional shares are a good entry option. Of course, which method to choose still depends on your trading habits and the size of your capital.