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haha seriously! I'm not sure how it works over at Ameritrade, but if you get with a decent online broker you can make trades in any volume up to 1000 shares for like $8 a trade. so no need to buy whatever that ask price was for. however, if you are that unfamiliar with stocks, you should know about ask prices and bid prices.
just because a stock is "listed" at say 250.00, doesn't mean that you can magically aquire some at that rate -- someone has to be willing to sell, and shareholders can set any price they wish. So the "ask price" is the last price someone said they'd sell at. Of course, not only must you meet their ask price, but they must also have sufficient shares to meet your bid (although partial purchases are common) to get that price.
Similarly, the bid price is the last quoted offer to buy -- this is very important if say, someone bombs the UN building or something (heaven forbid). if the market falls out for a stock, you can't just magically liquidate that stock, either -- you have to meet a buyer's price.
Again, I haven't used Ameritrade, but I'm fairly certain that you just had the trading page configured incorrectly or something. Though many brokerages require a hefty minimum balance, many will waive this if you just pay more commission per purchase. G'luck!
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