AKICIF, or something

[redbird]

I'm guessing one of you may know this: how would I go about selling 12 shares in a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange? I don't currently have a stock broker, or I wouldn't be asking this: I'm not looking to reinvest the money, and I already know what transaction I want to make.

ETA: No certificate, it's all recorded at the company in question. Which would be quite happy to transfer the stock into a brokerage account. So I guess we can rephrase this as "Can someone recommend a good discount brokerage for a single transaction, either online or with a NYC office?"

Comments

[hawkida.livejournal.com]

If you have the certificate in hand I'm fairly sure you can just go into a bank and tell them you want to sell them.

You could do that in the UK for LSE shares at any rate.

I think.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I know about six ways of doing this in Britain, but the US is weird.

In Britain, the first thing I'd suggest for anyone without a broker is doing it through your bank or building society. They usually have a decent minimum charge, they're a reputable institution, they're right there, and they know you.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

What's a building society?

K. [curious]

[papersky.livejournal.com]

It's similar to what in Canada are called "credit unions" -- essentially a mini-banking organization of which you are a member, not a customer, and where profits are shared to members. Building societies are so called because their origins were in providing mortgages for houses. Now things are complicated and some building societies have become banks with shares and others have been eaten, but there are still plenty around.

I don't know if you have any of this in the US.

[ckd]

I'm assuming you have a stock certificate for them. When I sold some stock and didn't have a broker, I just called around a few of the in-town (Boston) discount brokerages to ask what their commissions were for that size sale, picked one, took the certificate down to the brokerage, filled out a little paperwork, signed over the certificate, and got a check not too long after. With the financial disclosure requirements of the USA PATRIOT Act there will probably be more paperwork now than there was then, but it wasn't a huge deal then. (Now I have a broker.)