Wow, what a ignorant comment. You buy order would have to be in excess of $1000 for a transaction cost of $10 to be insignificant. As for the buy and hold remark, read the literature.
You're getting downvoted but what you said is the truth.
All of this marketing around the miracle of investing small amounts (if you invested $100 into the market 20 years ago it'd be worth $1M today!) is just that, marketing. It's a way for brokerages and mutual fund salesmen to get more people into the game.
The brutal reality is that you need at LEAST $10K to ever see an appreciable return from the market. Investing $500 is a waste of your time unless you go into it with the understanding that:
A) You might make $50 a year from it
B) You're going to make an effort to actually learn about the stock market, fundamental analysis, etc with the aim of better knowing what you're doing when you have a bigger bankroll to invest.
