A $1 slice of Apple, WeWork's $2 million settlement, and Michael Bloomberg's ad spree

Imagine the following scenario: You're a first time investor who wants to start trading on a fancy new app you've downloaded to your iPhone. But your dream investment, Apple, has a stock price of around $310, more than the $200 you've put aside to start investing.

Enter: fractional-share trading.

As Dan DeFrancesco and Rebecca Ungarino report this week:

At a time when some of the most popular stocks are at all-time highs, fractional-share trading allows customer exposure to companies they might not typically be able to afford whole shares in. Consider shares of Amazon, trading this week north of $2,000.

Interactive Brokers, Robinhood and Fidelity have launched an offering in recent months, and Charles Schwab says it plans to.

Dan and Rebecca talked to nearly a dozen insiders and executives about the rise of fractional-share trading in mainstream retail investing to understand who wins, who loses, and what it says about the industry today. You can read their story here.

And you can read more about the strategy at Interactive Brokers, which has consistently led the way in introducing new features like fractional-share trading, right here.

In related news, Morgan Stanley this week announced a $13 billion deal to buy E-Trade. Rebecca broke down why the Wall Street bank, which has 15,000-plus financial advisers catering to the super-wealthy, is buying a discount broker known for its talking baby ads.

And Dan talked to industry insiders who said the deal could kick off a buying spree for wealth-management fintechs. He explained why banks could be ready to "open up their pocketbooks" and what it means for startup valuations.

Elsewhere this week, Meghan Morris, Julie Bort, and Dakin Campbell reported that WeWork paid over $2 million to a woman who threatened to expose claims of sex, illegal drugs, and discrimination in a horrifying 50-page document.

From their story:

The story is the result of a months-long investigation, in which they spoke with 18 current and former executives and employees who were either involved with the company's investigation or familiar with the real estate team more broadly, revealed how the department escaped scrutiny for years. Business Insider also learned of several other WeWork settlements while investigating these claims.

You can read the full story here.

Lastly, Patrick Coffee, Lauren Johnson, and Tanya Dua had a string of stories this week on the advertising pros operating Michael Bloomberg's political advertising machine.

• Bloomberg has already spent $400 million on political advertising. Inside the secretive agency that just popped up to help manage all that money, which is run by Facebook's former CMO
• Meet the key people who are leading Mike Bloomberg's digital campaign to topple Donald Trump
• Michael Bloomberg is hiring from places like Facebook, Snapchat, and Viacom as he throws unlimited money at his campaign
• Mike Bloomberg hired ad agency Oberland and is trying to find black advertising pros to court black voters
  

Happy reading!

-- Matt

Finance and Investing

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Tech, Media, Telecoms

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Healthcare, Retail, Transportation

Big Pharma just started copying the buzzy startups that ship Viagra and hair-loss pills to your door, and it could be the start of a 'mega-trend'

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Inside the chaotic 'Valentine's Day massacre' at Wayfair where hundreds of workers lost their jobs

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Elon Musk wants to build a private 'SpaceX Village' with 100 rooms, lounge parties, volleyball tournaments, and rock climbing amid a South Texas retiree community

SpaceX, the rocket company founded by Elon Musk, hopes to construct a new private community at the southern tip of Texas where a dwindling retirement community already exists.

Leadership and Entrepreneurship

Netflix insiders share how they feel about its internal 'postmortem' emails that detail why employees were fired to their coworkers

Netflix may have one of the happiest workforces in the US tech sector, but its internal culture isn't for everyone.

A freelance web designer who makes over $200,000 a year says the majority of his income comes from referrals. Here are the emails he sends to get businesses to refer him to their customers.

Sam Schnitzler, a website consultant and the owner of the website-design firm Universal NYC, has been a successful web designer for over 17 years.