There are two ways to buy stocks in the stock market. One is by buying through Oddlot and the other one is through Boardlot.
Boardlot – If you want to buy PLDT whose board lot is 5, the shares must be divisible by 5. Meaning, you can only buy PLDT shares at 5 shares or 10 shares or 15 shares or 20 shares or 25 shares and so on and so forth. You cannot buy PLDT at 4 shares or 6 shares or 9 shares or 12 shares because they are not divisible by 5.
Boardlot is also the minimum price you can buy for the stock. For example, the price of PLDT is 2,2994 pesos per stock as of today, since the boardlot is 5, the minimum price for PLDT is 11,470 pesos. In this case, if your money is 5,000 pesos only, you cannot but PLDT today.
Based on the 30 companies included in the Philippine Stock Index below, you cannot buy Globe, SM Investments and PLDT shares (yellow highlight) if your money is 5,000 pesos only. The good news is you can buy the rest of the companies with your 5,000 pesos.
| SECURITY NAME | SYM | BOARD LOT | PRICES | Amount (Php) | |
| AC | 10 | 300.8 | 3,008.00 | |
| ABOITIZ EQUITY VENTURES, INC. | AEV | 100 | 39.30 | 3,930.00 | |
| ALLIANCE GLOBAL GROUP, INC. | AGI | 100 | 10.14 | 1,014.00 | |
| AYALA LAND, INC. | ALI | 100 | 15.30 | 1,530.00 | |
| ABOITIZ POWER CORPORATION | AP | 100 | 30.00 | 3,000.00 | |
| BANCO DE ORO UNIBANK, INC. | BDO | 10 | 56.00 | 560.00 | |
| BELLE CORPORATION | BEL | 1000 | 4.02 | 4,020.00 | |
| BANK OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS | BPI | 10 | 56.70 | 567.00 | |
| CEBU AIR, INC. | CEB | 10 | 79.90 | 799.00 | |
| DMCI HOLDINGS, INC. | DMC | 100 | 36.50 | 3,650.00 | |
| ENERGY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION | EDC | 100 | 6.06 | 606.00 | |
| FIRST GEN CORPORATION | FGEN | 100 | 14.20 | 1,420.00 | |
| GLOBE TELECOM, INC. | GLO | 10 | 926.00 | 9,260.00 | |
| INTERNATIONAL CONTAINER TERMINAL SERVICES, INC. | ICT | 10 | 50.65 | 506.50 | |
| JOLLIBEE FOODS CORPORATION | JFC | 10 | 88.80 | 888.00 | |
| JG SUMMIT HOLDINGS, INC. | JGS | 100 | 23.80 | 2,380.00 | |
| METROPOLITAN BANK & TRUST CO. | MBT | 10 | 69.30 | 693.00 | |
| MEGAWORLD CORPORATION | MEG | 1000 | 1.85 | 1,850.00 | |
| MANILA ELECTRIC COMPANY | MER | 10 | 256.00 | 2,560.00 | |
| METRO PACIFIC INVESTMENTS CORPORATION | MPI | 1000 | 3.16 | 3,160.00 | |
| MANILA WATER COMPANY, INC. | MWC | 100 | 19.76 | 1,976.00 | |
| PHILE MINING CORPORATION | PX | 100 | 23.75 | 2,375.00 | |
| ROBINSONS LAND CORPORATION | RLC | 100 | 12.16 | 1,216.00 | |
| SEMIRARA MINING CORPORATION | SCC | 10 | 207.40 | 2,074.00 | |
| SM INVESTMENTS CORPORATION | SM | 10 | 531.00 | 5,310.00 | |
| SAN MIGUEL CORPORATION | SMC | 10 | 122.00 | 1,220.00 | |
| SM DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION | SMDC | 100 | 8.44 | 844.00 | |
| SM PRIME HOLDINGS, INC. | SMPH | 100 | 12.20 | 1,220.00 | |
| PHILIPPINE LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE COMPANY "Common" | TEL | 5 | 2,294.00 | 11,470.00 | |
| UNIVERSAL ROBINA CORPORATION | URC | 100 | 43.00 | 4,300.00 |
Generally, investors and traders are buying stocks in boardlot tranches because they are easier to sell and trade.
Oddlot – if you want to buy 4 PLDT shares, you cannot do that because the price of PLDT which is 2,294 pessos is more than 1,000 pesos and it falls under the minimum board lot of 5 shares as you can see below. Boardlots are being determined by the current price of the stock. See below.
Very few investors buy through oddlots. Stocks sold at boardlots are easier to sell than oddlot stocks.
My recommendation with your 5,000 pesos is you buy companies whose minimum board lot is less than 5,000 pesos. Based on the stocks listed above, you can choose 27 companies whose board lot amount is less than 5,000 pesos. Avoid oddlots purchases as much as possible because they are a little bit hard to sell.
| If stock price is 1000 pesos or more | Board lot is 5 |
| If stock price is between 50 and 1000 pesos | Board lot is 10 |
| If stock price is between 5 and 50 pesos | Board lot is 100 |
| If stock price is between 50 centavos and 5 pesos | Board lot is 1000 |
| If stock price is between 5 centavos and 50 centavos | Board lot is 10,000 |
| If stock price is between 1 centavos and 5 centavos | Board lot is 1,000,000 |
