New to Investing – Buying Stocks and Computing for Average Price Per Share

Online buying of shares of stocks of a Philippine Stock Exchange listed company, done conveniently via PSE stock broker COL Financial Inc.

Buying the first stocks

I got my access credentials to the COL Financial trading portal last May 2, one working day after account opening and initial funding of my COL PLUS account.

Then the day after getting my investment portal access, I bought 20 shares of Jollibee at P226 per share. Factor in the transaction charges which includes COL commission, VAT, PSE fee, all for the total charges of P23.08; the average cost per share of the JFC stocks I bought was P227.1540. JFC Board lot is 10.

Here’s how the average cost per share was computed, in case you got confuse as I was, why the JFC stock with buy price of P226 a share, reflected “average price” of P227.1540 as seen in the COL Trading Portfolio.

Confirmation of Buy Order sent to registered email

I turned to Google when I got confused and through credible financial blogs, I was able to understand how the stock average price computation was done. 😀

Let’s project to the future to get a sample on how to calculate for average stock price if you have bought stocks at different price points.

Suppose I will buy JFC stocks again next month with a different price from my first order, let’s say 30 shares at P225.40 per share. The ave price per share will also change. The computation will be something like this:

Another thing that I got confuse about when I bought my first shares of stocks in the PSEI through COL was what is the meaning of “uncommitted shares” column which I can see on the online stock market investing platform of COL Financial.

Was I able to buy the JFC stocks successfully? Do I need to do something still? It turns out, I am all set. The tiny weeny 20 shares of JFC stocks were successfully bought and now part of my trading portfolio.

So what is uncommitted shares in COL online? It is the number of shares that has no pending sell order placement.

Stock market investing and learning is fun! 😀

Easy Investment Plan

My investment strategy for the JFC stocks is to go for the popular EIP or Easy Investment Plan of COL Financial. I aim to buy JFC stocks monthly at P5,000 budget for a year, I couldn’t afford a bigger budget for now.

If on the next month the stock price dips, it’s okay, I will buy. If price goes up, it’s okay, I will still buy, as this is my strategy – going for peso cost averaging.

EIP stock investing which follows the peso cost averaging strategy makes it easy to deal with market fluctuations on the ‘emotional front’. You as the investor is not emotionally affected with price changes at ‘buy’ times, because (1) your investment horizon is for the long term, and (2) you know that in the future, a year or two or longer, the stocks you are holding will give you profits that beats inflation and a good roi . And (3) The EIP or peso cost averaging has been proven over and over again to be an effective method.

So this is why I worry not that after a few minutes of placing a successful order I can see ‘reds’ on the table haha.

Check here for a walk-through guide with screenshots on how to open an EIP account in COL Financial.

Join iSensey on this stock market journey as a new investor. My sharings and explanations will always be easy to follow since I am just starting, and I don’t understand much of the too technical financial concepts and investing jargons yet. If you are in the same boat, let’s aim is to always continue to learn about stock market investment, for our future, and that of our family.

Hope iSensey investment articles will inspire you to join and invest in the Philippines stock market. Let’s learn and build wealth together!

Next share: Placing an O-H Buy Order or Off-Hours Buy Order in COL.