How to Buy Vestas Stock

Vestas is the largest producer of commercial wind turbines.

Vestas Wind Systems A/S is the world's largest producer of commercial wind turbine. The stock shares for Denmark-based Vestas officially only trade on the Danish over-the-counter market. The easiest solution for United States investors to buy shares of Vestas is through the purchase of unsponsored American Depository Receipts -- ADRs. An ADR share represents official shares of the company held in trust by a bank.

Instructions

1. Check your stock broker's policy concerning the trading of over-the-counter -- OTC -- stocks. As an unsponsored ADR, shares of Vestas trade in the unregulated OTC marketplace. Your broker may require you to purchase shares through a phone broker rather than with the online system.

2. Look up the current share price for the Vestas ADR using your brokerage account quote screen. The stock symbol for the Vestas ADR is VWSYF. Note the current bid price, ask price and average trading volume. For example, on September 17, 2010, E-Trade was reporting VWSYF at $38.13 bid, $38.61 ask and average volume of approximately 5,500 shares.

3. Place an order with your broker for the number of shares of VWSYF you want to buy. Follow the broker directions for placing the order, either a phone order or through the broker's online order system. The order should be placed as a limit order to ensure you buy the shares at the price you want to pay. To purchase the shares quickly, put your limit price as the ask price. To try to get a better price, split the difference between the bid and ask prices for your limit price.

4. Monitor your order status and the current share price until your order is filled. If the share price starts to move, you may want to cancel your order and re-enter it with a different limit price. When the order is filled, the shares will show in your account summary.

Tips & Warnings

• If you do not have a broker, the SmartMoney 2010 Broker Survey is linked below. Contact the top rated brokers for their OTC trading policies.

• If you want to purchase 100 or 200 shares of the Vestas ADR, the order should be filled fairly quickly. If you want to buy a larger amount of shares, you may need to wait for a seller who wants to sell the same number of shares.

• The bid/ask spread is the amount the share price must increase before you have a break even in your investment.

• As an unsponsored ADR, there may be shares of Vestas trading under other stock symbols at different prices. VWSYF is the most actively traded Vestas ADR.

• It is possible to lose a significant portion of your investment buying unsponsored ADR shares. You must do your own research and understand the risks before investing.

References

• Vestas: Share Trade
• SmartMoney: 2010 Broker Survey