I happened to have a friend ask me this question. Many novice investors really don’t understand how many shares are in one lot of Taiwan stocks or how stock prices are calculated. I’ll briefly share my understanding.

First, you need to understand what stock price is. The stock price is the trading price of a stock, representing how much money you need to spend to buy or sell one share. Taking TSMC as an example, if the current stock price is 561 New Taiwan Dollars, that means one share of TSMC costs 561 NT dollars. For US stocks like Tesla, if it’s listed at 254 USD, that’s one share costing 254 USD. Stock prices fluctuate constantly based on the matching of buy and sell orders, which is why the same stock can have very different prices at different times.

Here’s an important distinction: the trading units for Taiwan stocks and US stocks are completely different. US stocks are bought and sold directly by the share, so you can buy 1 share, 10 shares, or 100 shares as you like. But Taiwan stocks are a bit more complicated, introducing the concept of a “lot.” One lot equals 1,000 shares, meaning how many shares are in a lot depends on the stock. If TSMC is 561 NT dollars per share, then one lot of TSMC is 561 multiplied by 1,000, which equals 560,999 NT dollars. That’s why many people think Taiwan stocks are so expensive to buy and sell compared to US stocks, which seem cheaper.

But this also raises a problem. 560,999 NT dollars is a significant amount of money for retail investors, so Taiwan introduced fractional trading later. Fractional trading allows buying less than one lot, meaning from 1 to 999 shares. This way, investors can enter the market with less capital. However, fractional trading has lower liquidity, and matching orders are done via periodic auction every minute, unlike the faster whole-lot trading.

Regarding how to look at stock prices, it’s actually very simple. The face value of a stock and its price are two different things. The face value is just a historical record; what really determines how much you need to pay is the current market price. To find out how much it costs to buy one lot, just multiply the current stock price by 1,000. For example, if a stock’s current price is 100 NT dollars, one lot costs 100 times 1,000, which is 100k NT dollars.

Many factors influence stock prices. The company’s financial health and profitability directly impact the price. The macroeconomic environment, like GDP and interest rates, also affects the overall market. Investor sentiment plays a role too—good news causes everyone to rush in to buy, bad news causes panic selling. Sometimes, these emotional swings have a bigger impact than fundamentals.

In summary, the minimum trading unit for Taiwan stocks is one lot, which equals 1,000 shares. US stocks are bought directly by the share. If your capital is limited, you can consider fractional trading in Taiwan, which has lower barriers but less liquidity. If you want to start investing, first understand these basic rules, choose a reliable platform, and then plan your trading strategy based on your capital and risk tolerance.