GTA 5 stock market: stocks for Lester's five assassinations

The game has two exchanges, and they behave differently.

• LCN (Liberty City National Exchange, website lcn-exchange.com) only reacts to events in your story: missions and assassinations. Other players don't affect it, and it works offline, without Social Club.
• BAWSAQ (bawsaq.com) simulates a market driven by players' actions and Rockstar's servers. Without a connection the site shows "not available". You can't move it on your own: GamesRadar gives the example that even draining every Sprunk machine won't change anything.

On in-game weekends the market is closed, and the trading day starts at 8:00. Fandom recommends sleeping until in-game Monday before each mission. You skip time by sleeping in a safehouse or via the save menu from a bed.

The basic cycle is the same in every guide:

1. Save the game.
2. Buy the stocks.
3. Sleep to let time pass.
4. Check the price. If it is rising, keep sleeping. If growth turns into a drop, load the save with the highest price and sell.

The cap is $2,147,483,647 in an account. That is the 32-bit integer limit, and the game won't give you more.

Franklin carries out all five contracts, in a fixed order. The "before/after" stock pairs match across all verified guides (GTABase, GTABoom, Sportskeeda, GamesRadar, Fandom). Unlock conditions are per Fandom. Percentages are approximate, per guides: they vary between sources.

How long to wait:

• BET: a few in-game hours or one sleep. According to Fandom, the stock starts to fall after about 24 in-game hours.
• BIL: buy at least 3 days after the mission, sell at least a week later.
• RWC and VAP: about two in-game days.
• DEB: a few in-game days; FRT: 6–8 hours; FAC: about 48 hours; GCD: about 24 hours (per Fandom).

After the fifth assassination, according to guides, the total comes to about $2 billion.

Hotel: when the story requires it. It is mandatory: after it, Franklin gets a new house at 3671 Whispymound Drive. If you don't do it before Blitz Play, Franklin will text Michael and Trevor to wait. You don't have much money at this stage, so don't expect a big profit from BET.

There is a disagreement about BET. GamesRadar recommends buying it after the mission, but most guides (GTABase, GTABoom, Sportskeeda, Fandom) say before. We recommend before. If BAWSAQ isn't available for you, Fandom suggests Dollar Pills (DOP) on LCN instead of Betta.

The other four: after The Big Score. The contracts don't disappear, and after the final heist each protagonist gets his share in his account. Lester's map marker is a green "L", and the next contracts come as a call to a payphone.

Keep two more things in mind:

• The Cluckin' Bell, Gruppe Sechs, Augury Insurance and Merryweather stocks depend on the ending you choose. What each ending changes is on the GTA 5 endings page.
• Don't buy LifeInvader: after the mission Friend Request this stock never recovers.

All five contracts are required for 100% completion: they are among the 69 story missions. The full list is on the GTA 5 missions page.

Regular story missions move prices too. Each pair below is described the same way by at least two guides: Vangelico and FlyUS by GTA Boom and HighGroundGaming, Tinkle by GTABase and GTA Boom. Percentages for these stocks come from only one source, so they are left out here. Use the same save-based cycle.

GTA Boom recommends doing Hitch Lift 1 as Michael. Both guides suggest holding off on it while your accounts are low. Don’t buy Richards Majestic: according to GTA Boom and HighGroundGaming, it drops and never returns to its old price.

1. Before the mission, switch to Michael and buy the right stocks with all his money.
2. Do the same as Franklin and Trevor.
3. Save to a separate slot before buying and again after the mission.
4. Sell for each protagonist separately when the price peaks.

While waiting for growth, save to a new slot after every sleep. Then, when the price starts to fall, you load exactly the moment when it was highest, not the starting point.

The number of protagonists depends on the ending. After A or B two are alive, and in B Michael's share of The Big Score goes to his family, so there is less capital. The most money for the market is left in ending C, where all three are alive and get their shares. More about the protagonists is on the GTA 5 characters page.

• Percentages vary. Only RWC (about 300%) and VAP (about 100%) stay consistent across all sources. BET ranges from 21–80%, GCD from 45–90%. Fandom says patch 1.14 (20.10.2015) reduced stock returns after the assassinations, so on current versions the numbers may be lower.
• BAWSAQ. Depends on Rockstar's online services. If the site shows "not available", work with the LCN pairs and come back to BAWSAQ later.
• Tickers. GamesRadar lists Redwood as "RED"; in the game and other sources it is RWC.

Other ways to earn in story mode (businesses, heists, side lines) are collected in the how to make money in GTA 5 guide. The protagonists' side lines are on the Strangers and Freaks page, and the heists are covered on the GTA 5 heists page.