I want to buy stock/share for $700 but I dont know where is cheaper??

Can Anyone let me know, Because I want buy the stock for long term investment, I am thinking to buy walmart stock.
Please let me know the sugestion which online trader are cheaper because I only need to do 1 transaction.
Can I close the account after buying the stock ??
How about the stock I buy if I close the account, do I need to pay extra charge to keep the stock that I already bought because I want long term investment ???
Please give me as much advice as you can. Many thanks

I will refrane from giving you my opinion of Walmart.

To get right to your question. Use Scottrade. $7.95. Do not close the account and take delivery. That is very expensive. I think they charge something like $35 to issue a certificate. Leave it in the account for perhaps the time you may want to sell it or the time you may want to buy something else. That way also you do not have to worry about loosing the certificate.

One caution. There is a good possibility that Scottrade might get purchased by another brokerage firm that then might want to charge you a maintenance fee on your small account. But do not worry about that unless it happens.

Ok first off DO NOT BUY WALLMART!!
NO NO TO WALLMART

but to answer the question scottrade is really good for 7.99 i think it is per trade or it is 9.99 with alot of great features like online stock checking and alot more

Go to yahoo finance and get a quote for any random stock, and there will be adds all over the place promising 6 dollar trades and 8 dollar trades. Carefull though...I use charles Schwab, and the only way to get 10 dollar trades is by haveing more than $1,000,000 US in your account...otherwise it's 13 bucks.

You should call a company, they'd gladly answer your questions

If you have $700 to invest I wouldn't suggest buying one stock.
You can open an account with Franklin Investments or T, Rowe Price. (check on line) You can start a mutual fund for yourself (thousands of investors pool millions together for investment)
There are many different options, I would suggest either the US or Asia (Pacific Rim) You can add as little as $50 month and watch it grow!
Good luck!

one strategy to know if a stock is undervalued (cheap) or overvalued is :
to use the P/E ratio of the average firms in the industry (walmart, meijer, schnucks etc). Multiply that by the current earnings of walmart, you will get the intrinsic value of the stock. If the stock is traded higher than the intrinsic value then it is overvalued and so.. DON'T BUY. If it is lower then... of couse, buy.