Stocks for Kids (and Teens)
Updated: July 4, 2026
Written by Emmanuel Modu, MBA, The Wharton School of Business
There are probably more than 6,000 stocks traded on the two major stock exchanges in the United States, the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ. No kid investor can investigate all of them to find the ones likely to rise in value.
Before we go further, one warning. No one can guarantee that a given stock will increase in value. Stocks sometimes go completely bust, even stocks of big companies. The problem we address in this article is the one most teen investors face at the start. How do you pick stocks without spending months learning all the details of stock investing first?
Suppose your goal is to start with a little bit of money and learn what makes stocks go up or down. Then begin with relatively safe companies, or with companies you already recognize. That is a sensible way to start. And Before buying your first stock, make sure to read our guide on how to start investing as a teenager.
Kids Still Need Investment Basics
Even so, you should do some basic analysis on any stock you buy. That means reading parts of the company's annual report, looking at its profitability, and doing a quick review of its financial condition. You can save deeper fundamental analysis for later, when you have more money at risk in the market. (To learn all about analyzing stocks, see the TeenVestor Stock Certification Course.).
Can Kids Invest in the Stock Market?
Minors generally cannot open brokerage accounts on their own. In some states, a minor is anyone under 18. In others, it is anyone under 21. If you are a minor, you can invest under the supervision of a parent through a custodial brokerage account. Your parent signs you up for the account through an online broker. You own the assets in the account. Your parent controls the investments (hopefully, with your help) until you are no longer a minor.
A few big brokers also offer teen accounts for ages 13 to 17. The Fidelity Youth Account and the Schwab Teen Investor account are the best known. With these, you control the account yourself, and your parent stays connected. See How Old Do I Have to Be to Invest in Stocks? for details.
Criteria for Choosing Custodial Brokerage Accounts
Important things your parents should look for when choosing a brokerage account for you include the following:
• No stock trading fees. Find online brokers that charge $0 to buy and sell stocks and ETFs.
• No minimum balance. Make sure the broker does not require a sizeable minimum balance in a trading account. Many now offer a $0 minimum.
• Fractional shares. If you want to invest as little as $1 in reputable companies with high stock prices, the broker must allow you to buy fractions of a share.
• Low or no monthly fees. Some youth apps charge subscriptions that eat into small accounts.
Our guide How to Choose an Online Brokercovers these and other things to check. Two examples: what it costs to move your account, and whetherthe company has staying power.
Top Brokers and Apps for Kid and Teen Investors
Here are the brokers and apps we consider the most teen-friendly right now. We have split them into two groups. Some of the youth apps combine banking and investing. They may offer debit cards and platforms that let parents monitor and approve their children's stock trades.
Traditional, Established Brokers
These firms have been around a long time. They charge no commissions on stocks and ETFs. They have no account minimums and no subscription fees. They are also the most durable, the cheapest to leave, and usually easier to deal with when a trading problem comes up.
• Fidelity. Offers both custodial accounts and the teen-owned Fidelity Youth Account. Commission-free, with no minimum and no subscription.
• Charles Schwab. Now owns TD Ameritrade. Offers custodial accounts and the Schwab Teen Investor account.
• Vanguard. Offers custodial (UGMA/UTMA) accounts. A large, long-established firm known for low-cost index funds.
• E*TRADE. From Morgan Stanley. Offers custodial accounts, and even custodial IRAs for teens with earned income.
• Interactive Brokers. Offers custodial accounts. A powerful platform, though more advanced than most beginners need.
• Ally Invest. Offers custodial accounts with commission-free stocks and ETFs, alongside Ally's online banking.
• Robinhood. The app that helped make commission-free trading standard. It previously did not offer custodial accounts. It now does, so teens can invest through a Robinhood custodial account.
Youth-Focused Apps
These apps are built for teens or families. They often add lessons, an allowance tool, a debit card, or parental controls. Most charge a subscription. Some can be costlier to leave. Weigh the extras against the fees.
• Greenlight. A family money app with a debit card, allowance, chores, and parent-approved investing. Subscription-based.
• Acorns. Offers custodial (UGMA/UTMA) investing for kids through Acorns Early, with automated, hands-off portfolios. Subscription-based.
• Stash. Offers a parent-run custodial account it calls a Kids Portfolio. Subscription-based. This is also where Stockpile's former customers were moved.
Stock Index Funds for Kids
The best way for young investors to begin is with exchange-traded funds, or ETFs. An ETF holds a collection of stocks but trades like a single stock. The best ETFs for teen investors track well-known stock market indexes like the Dow Jones Industrial Average (the Dow), the S&P 500, and the NASDAQ.
For example, the Dow ETF tracks the 30 companies in the Dow index. These include large companies such as Verizon, Microsoft, and Coca-Cola. A broad index ETF is somewhat safer than a single stock. Its value tends to swing less, which helps you meet your diversification goal. Here are the ETFs for the three major stock indexes:
The Dow and S&P 500 ETFs both cover the broad market. The S&P 500 ETF covers more industries and sectors than the Dow. It is considered the better picture of the overall stock market. The NASDAQ ETF leans much more toward technology stocks.
To see how an index ETF has been doing, plug its symbol into a financial portal like Yahoo!Finance. Look up DIA, VOO, and QQQ to see how they have moved over the past five years.
Large Dow Companies for Kids
In general, stocks of large companies, like those in the Dow, will not fluctuate as much as stocks of smaller companies. As a teen investor, try to stick to the companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (the Dow). The Dow includes some of the more stable companies in the United States. Here is a short video on the Dow: The Dow Video.
The Dow gives you a general idea of the health of the overall stock market. It consists of 30 companies. You may already know some of them, such as:
• Verizon Communications, Inc. (stock symbol: VZ)
• Nike, Inc. (stock symbol: NKE)
• McDonald's Corp. (stock symbol: MCD)
• Microsoft Corporation (stock symbol: MSFT)
• The Coca-Cola Company (stock symbol: KO)
The entire list of the companies in the Dow and their stock symbols is here: Dow Companies.
Getting Stock Performance Information
To find out how these stocks have performed over the past five years (or any period, for that matter), use Yahoo!Finance. Look up VZ, NKE, MCD, MSFT, and KO to see how they have moved.
Later in this article, we provide a quick guide to some signs to look for to broadly identify valuable companies for your very own stock portfolio.
Past Performance Can Be Misleading
How a stock performed in the past does not tell you how it will perform in the future. You also need to look at other indicators. How profitable is the company? How much debt does it carry? Who are its competitors? How does the general economy affect its sales?
If you are dipping your toes into stocks, you can probably invest a tiny amount in giant companies without thoroughly investigating your stock of choice. Once you get more serious, you must do deeper fundamental research. We show you how to start later in this article.
Companies Related to Brands Kids Know
If nothing in the Dow list excites you, look at companies behind the brands teens actually buy and use. The investment bank Piper Sandler surveys thousands of US teens in a project called Taking Stock With Teens. Its most recent survey, from Fall 2025, polled about 11,000 teens. Nike ranked number one in both clothing and footwear. Hollister ranked second in clothing. Teens reported spending about $2,200 a year.
Just to be clear, basing stock purchases on brand usage is probably not the best way to decide what stocks to buy. But the brands in the survey may give you some initial investment ideas. When you get more experienced, you can do fundamental research, which we discuss later, to see which stocks are worth your money.
Here are some well-known teen brands and the public companies behind them:
• Nike and Converse: Nike, Inc. (stock symbol: NKE)
• Hollister: Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (stock symbol: ANF)
• UGG and Hoka: Deckers Outdoor Corporation (stock symbol: DECK)
• Vans: VF Corporation (stock symbol: VFC)
• Lululemon: Lululemon Athletica Inc. (stock symbol: LULU)
• Coach: Tapestry, Inc. (stock symbol: TPR)
• McDonald's, Chipotle, and Starbucks: McDonald's Corporation (MCD), Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG), and Starbucks Corporation (SBUX)
• Goldfish crackers: The Campbell's Company (stock symbol: CPB)
• Lay's: PepsiCo, Inc. (stock symbol: PEP)
• Monster and Celsius energy drinks: Monster Beverage Corporation (MNST) and Celsius Holdings, Inc. (CELH)
Once again, to find out how these stocks have performed, use Yahoo!Finance. Find the stock symbol and plug it into the portal's search box.
It bears repeating that picking a stock just because you know the brand is not the best method. But it is a start, especially if you are investing very little money.
Industries and Sectors
Another way to find companies worth investigating is by industry and sector. An industry category defines the line of business a company is in. A sector is a major category that industries fit into. In other words, industries are subsets of sectors. Here is a video on the topic: Sectors and Industries video.
Take Apple. Yahoo!Finance classifies Apple in the consumer electronics industry, within the technology sector. Classifying stocks is useful in one common situation. Your research and reading tell you that an industry or sector will be a good investment. But you do not yet know which companies in it will make the best investments.
Knowing a company's industry and sector also makes it easier to compare the company to its competitors. We use the sectors and industries as classified by Yahoo!Finance in our stock analyses. Other organizations, such as Standard & Poor's, Moody's, and Morningstar, have their own categories. The major sectors are quite similar from one organization to another.
Kids Should Avoid Penny Stocks and Cryptocurrency (for Now)
Penny stocks and cryptocurrency are too risky for beginning investors.
Penny Stocks Are Terrible for Kid Investors
Avoid penny stocks. These are stocks of very small companies that trade below $5. Scam artists use them to hook unsuspecting, naive investors. There is nothing necessarily wrong with the companies that issue these stocks. The problem is information. There are usually very few publicly available documents about the health of these small companies. That makes it easy for unscrupulous brokers and advisors to lure beginners in.
Penny stock prices are also easy to manipulate in so-called pump and dump schemes. Promoters talk up the value of penny stocks they hold. The price temporarily skyrockets. Then they dump their shares, leaving new investors with stock worth much less.
Cryptocurrency Values Are Too Unstable for Kid Investors
Cryptocurrency is another investment teens and kids should avoid for now, whether in stock form or as virtual currency. The reason is simple. The value of cryptocurrencies is too volatile. Bitcoin is the best-known cryptocurrency, and its swings are wild. It peaked at about $126,000 in October 2025. As of early July 2026, it trades at roughly $61,000. That is a drop of more than half in nine months. You can find the current value of Bitcoin here: Bitcoin.
The industry has had other problems. In 2022 and 2023, several prominent crypto platforms went bankrupt, including FTX, Celsius, Voyager Digital, and Three Arrows Capital. Millions of customers were left with little hope of recovering their deposits. Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, pleaded guilty to violating US anti-money-laundering laws in 2023 and paid billions of dollars in penalties. Its founder, Changpeng Zhao, was sentenced to four months in prison in 2024. He received a presidential pardon in 2025.
Cryptocurrency may be fun and exciting to invest in. But at this stage, it is closer to gambling unless you know exactly what you are doing. You may want to wait a while before diving into the deep end of crypto investing.
Financial Analysis for Teen Investors
Choosing stocks by simply looking at big companies or popular teen brands is not the ideal way to build your portfolio. The best way is to do your own fundamental analysis on stocks.
Elements of Fundamental Stock Analysis
Fundamental stock analysts focus on a company's ability to grow and make more money in the future. They look at several things. How much money has the company made in the past? How much has it borrowed? How much profit has it paid back to investors as dividends? How good are its managers? They also weigh other factors that affect long-term profitability. Take a new chief executive officer. Suppose the new CEO whipped a previous company into shape and made it more profitable. A fundamental analyst would be optimistic that this CEO will do wonders for the new company too.
We cannot go through all the details of fundamental analysis in this article. But you can begin by getting a hold of a company's annual report. An annual report is sometimes called a Form 10-K (or just a 10-K). That is the form in which all public companies must submit information to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Here are the investor pages of two companies you may know: Apple and Coca-Cola. Annual reports give teen investors basic information about the health of publicly traded companies. Here is a video on annual reports: Annual report video.
Two of the most important tables in annual reports are balance sheets and income statements, described in the following sections.
Balance Sheets for Teen Investors
One of the important items found in annual reports is a balance sheet. A balance sheet is a snapshot at a specific point in time. It shows what a company owns (its assets) and what it owes (its liabilities). The difference between the two is known as shareholder's equity, owner's equity, or just plain equity. Review the balance sheet to understand:
• Whether the company can pay its debt;
• Whether the company has borrowed too much money; and
• What the company would be worth if it went out of business.
Debt to Equity Ratio
Please go here for a full explanation of balance sheets. In addition, Investopedia has a great page that explains one of the most important balance sheet calculations: the Debt to Equity Ratio. This is the ratio of how much a company has borrowed compared to the total amount it has raised from its investors. That amount is its equity.
Different sectors and industries have different levels of debt-to-equity ratios. A traditional car manufacturer like Ford will have a higher debt-to-equity ratio than a technology company like Microsoft. So you can only tell whether a company's ratio is high by comparing it to other companies in its sector and industry. If the ratio is too high, it could mean the company has borrowed too much money compared to what it has put into the business.
You can calculate the debt-to-equity ratio yourself by pulling the numbers from the balance sheet. An easier way is to use a financial website that does the calculation for you. An excellent one is StockAnalysis.com. Enter the company's stock symbol on the site's landing page. You will land on an overview of the company. Choose 'Financials' from the menu, then select 'Ratios'. For example, Apple's debt-to-equity ratio in 2025 was 1.52.
An upward trend in the ratio could mean the company is borrowing too much. It also depends on what the additional debt is used for. Compare the ratio to companies in the same sector and industry. The details of interpreting debt-to-equity ratios can be found in this section of TeenVestor.com.
Income Statements for Teen Investors
Another important item found in annual reports is an income statement. An income statement covers a specific period of time. It shows the money a company takes in by selling its products, the company's expenses, and the profit (or loss) left over. Review a company's income statement to see whether it makes enough money to support its operations and return money to its investors, meaning its stockholders. Please go here for a full explanation of income statements.
Net Profit Margin and Other Measures
One way to measure how profitable a company was in a given year is its profit margin, also known as net profit margin. Profit margin depends on two items. Net income is the amount the company keeps after paying all expenses and taxes. Revenue is the amount the company takes in from selling its products, before subtracting any expenses whatsoever. Profit margin is calculated as follows:
Profit Margin = (Net Income / Revenue) x 100
Once again, we can use StockAnalysis.com to get to the income statement and the profit margin. Enter the stock symbol on the landing page, choose 'Financials' from the menu, and select 'Income'. For example, Apple's profit margin in 2025 was 26.9%. That is extremely high compared to companies in other industries. Compare Apple's margin to companies in the same sector and industry to know whether it is truly an excellent company.
We have just scratched the surface of the analysis you can do. If you want to save yourself the trouble of doing more research, you may be better off investing in index-based exchange-traded funds over a long period of time.