Buying a stock based solely on price is a good way to go broke. It is VERY possible for the $1 stock to be "expensive" and the $1000 stock to be "cheap". When a $10000 stock goes up by $1...that is a 0.1% gain, extremely minimal. When a $1 stock goes up $1....that is a 100% gain, not a reasonable return expectation. There are VERY VERY VERY VERY few incidents that can happen to make the company all of a sudden twice as valuable in a short term. Any wise investor will tell you that stocks trading under $5 is basically gambling, not investing. If the fundamentals of the company were any good...the value would be higher. If the Board of Directors had any faith in the company and wanted to actually attract investors, they would have already done a reverse split. Newbie investors for some reason tend to think that a low stock price represents an possible up and coming company with a big payday potential. That is simply not the case. Less than 5 years ago, Bank of America was trading at under $5 during the housing crash....is Bank of America an up and comer? Yes, stock price can be factor into your investing decision, but you have to understand WHY its at the price it is.

Yes, it DOES take a lot of money to make considerable money with stocks. The 30 year historical return on stocks averages about 8%....meaning a $100k investments nets only $8k on average per year. Stocks is NOT a place to make quick fast money. Its something that takes time and money to do. In your scenario, a stock with little/no growth will offer dividends in lieu of that price growth. If you have a DRIP for those dividends, then that can compound your earnings year after year.

I am new to stock trading, and I have a simple question:

I read that buying 1000 shares at $1 each and buying 1 share at $1000 are the "same thing". I am looking for some clarification on that, because the way I understand it is:

If I buy 1 share at $1000 and the stock goes up $1, I have made $1, but if I buy 1000 shares at $1 and the stock goes up $1, I have made $1000. Am I right in thinking so?

Im thinking maybe the odds of the $1 stock going up by $1 is extremely less common than the $1000 share going up $1?

Thanks for any clarification :)