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Can I buy only 4 shares of a company?
Open an account with a US discount online broker, or with a European broker with access to the US market.  I think ETRADE allow non-resident accounts, for instance, amongst others.  The brokerage will be about $10, and there is no annual fee.  (So you're ~1% down out of the gate, but that's not so much.)   Brokers may have a minimum transaction value but very few exchanges care about the number of shares anymore, and there is no per-share fee. As lecrank notes, putting all your savings into a single company is not prudent, but having a flutter with fun money on Apple is harmless. Paul is correct that dividend cheques may be a slight problem for non-residents.  Apple don't pay dividends so there's no problem in this specific case.  More generally your broker will give you a cash account into which the dividends can go. You may have to deal with US tax which is more of an annoyance than a cost.