GTA 5: Which stocks to buy

Which stocks to buy in GTA 5 depends on whether you want to tackle the Lester assassination missions, as these have a major impact on the stock market.

Buy GTA 5 stocks – this is how the in-game stock market works

Buy and analyze stocks in GTA 5 using the two portals BAWSAQ and Liberty City National Exchange (LCN). The latter is headquartered in Liberty City, the setting for GTA 3. You can access the portals with your smartphone. Change characters to invest Franklin, Michael and Trevor’s money.

• As in real life, stock prices in GTA 5 rise and fall regularly, so the same rule applies here: buy when the price is low and sell when the price rises. Unlike in real life, you can use the save function to avoid losses. To do this, save the game before investing in a stock. Create a new save slot each time to be able to return to an earlier point in time.

• Let time pass by using the bed. However, do not save, as this will overwrite the save game. Instead, leave the bed immediately, which will advance the time and change the stock prices. Take advantage of the different sleeping times of Franklin (eight hours), Michael (six hours) and Trevor (twelve hours) to let time advance at different intervals.

• Just as in real life, the amount of money invested determines the profit made on the sale. The more shares you are able to buy cheaply and, conversely, sell at a profit when the share price has risen, the higher your profits will be. So if you want to get the most out of the stock market, you should have a lot of money to spend.

• In GTA 5, the LCN stock market features a variety of fictitious companies, each of which always has a competitor. If the share price of one company rises, the price of the competitor company falls in parallel. The situation is different with BAWSAQ. This is online and is influenced by purchases and sales by other players. BAWSAQ (Ballsack) is just one of many allusions that you will find in GTA 5.

• There are rumors on the internet that you as a player can influence the prices of certain companies through your actions in the game outside of missions. These include, for example, the claim that stealing and destroying cars or airplanes from certain companies listed on the stock market would negatively affect their prices. However, these claims have been refuted.

Make a profit in GTA 5 by influencing the stock market with assassination missions

At a certain point in the game, Lester will give you assassination missions for Franklin to influence the stock market. These missions allow you to make huge profits, depending on the amount of shares you have previously purchased. With the money, you can then buy expensive cars like the Bugatti Veyron, which costs 1,000,000,000. Alternatively, you can find the Bugatti in GTA 5 on the streets of Los Santos.

• The missions are only accessible once all three main characters are living in Los Santos. As Franklin, you will then receive the first of five assassination missions from Lester. Since you get the most out of the assassinations if you buy a lot of stocks beforehand, it’s worth saving the missions until you have a large sum of money. As you progress through the game, and especially towards the finale of the main story, you will receive larger sums of money that you can then invest.

• You can start the first of the five assassination missions, “Hotel Murder”, without hesitation, as it is part of the main story. In it, Lester commissions you to kill the CEO of a pharmaceutical company because Lester has bought some shares in the competing company Betta Pharmaceuticals. You should schedule the start of the mission for a Monday and immediately before that buy the shares via BAWSAQ. Save a separate save game before starting the mission.

• After completing the mission, all you have to do is wait. Sleep for several hours and check the stock market regularly to sell the shares at the highest price (+50%). However, keep in mind that the price will start to fall again after 24 hours in the game. If you miss the perfect time, load the save game immediately before starting the mission to try again.

• Immediately after you sell the shares of Betta Pharmaceuticals, or by Friday at the latest, you should buy the shares of the competitor Bilkinton Research, whose price is currently at its lowest. However, this recovers after 3 days in the game and reaches its peak (+100%) after three more days, at which point you then sell these shares. You will follow a similar strategy for the following missions.

• In “Murder with many targets”, you buy Debonaire shares through LCN before the mission begins, which you always set for a Monday. After the mission, you have to wait a few days. Keep an eye on the share price and sell when the price has reached +60%. Immediately afterwards, invest all your money in Redwood Cigarettes shares. After 96 hours at the latest, these should have a value of up to +300%.

• For “Sittenmord”, you invest in shares of Fruit Computers on BAWSAQ before the mission, which you sell after the mission, already six or at the latest eight hours later. The value should have risen to + 50%. Now you buy shares in Facade, which should have risen to + 33% 48 hours later and should be sold.

• “Murder on the Bus” is a bit of an outlier, as you don’t buy shares until after the assassination. This time, you buy Vapid shares on BAWSAQ and wait two days for them to promise a profit of up to +100%. In “Murder on the Construction Site”, you need to invest all your money in Gold Coast via LCN before the mission and sell when the shares have reached a profit of +45%.