You’re standing there with Michael, Franklin, or Trevor, staring at a phone screen that looks like a 2013 time capsule. You’ve got a few thousand bucks—maybe a few million if you just finished a big score—and you want to turn it into billions. Honestly, the stock market in Los Santos is less about "investing" and more about high-stakes corporate sabotage.
If you try to play it like a real-world index fund, you’re going to lose. The game doesn't care about quarterly earnings or P/E ratios. It cares about who you just blew up.
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To really make the dream work, you have to understand that the market is a tool, not a guessing game. There are two exchanges: the LCN and the BAWSAQ. The LCN is local. It reacts to your story missions and the chaos you cause in your specific save file. BAWSAQ used to be influenced by the global community of players, but these days, for the single-player campaign, it mostly functions as a secondary list for specific scripted events.
Why Most People Mess Up the Lester Missions
The biggest mistake? Doing Lester’s assassination missions too early.
Look, Lester Crest is basically your golden ticket. He gives Franklin a series of hits that guaranteed-absolutely-100% shift stock prices. But if you do these missions when you only have $50,000 in the bank, you’re making pennies.
You need to wait.
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The strategy is simple but requires some discipline: finish the entire main story first. Complete "The Big Score." Once that final heist is done, each of your characters should have somewhere between $25 million and $40 million. That is your seed money. If you multiply $40 million by a 300% return, you’re looking at real money. If you do it with $10k? You’re just wasting your time.
The only exception is the first assassination mission, "The Hotel Assassination." You have to do that one to move the story forward. For all the others—The Multi Target, The Vice, The Bus, and The Construction—leave them alone until the credits have rolled.
The Step-by-Step for Massive Returns
When you finally sit down to do this, you need to be methodical. It’s not just about buying; it’s about the "double dip."
Take the Multi Target Assassination as a perfect example. Before you even start the mission, open the phone on all three characters. Go to the LCN exchange and put every single cent into Debonaire (DEB).
Do the mission.
After you finish, wait about 24 in-game hours. You’ll see Debonaire peak at around an 80% return. Sell it all. But you aren't done! Because you just tanked their rival, Redwood (RWC), that stock is currently in the gutter. Buy as much Redwood as you can. Wait a few in-game days—usually about 48 to 72 hours—and watch it rebound. You can hit a 300% return on that second leg. That's how people hit the $2.1 billion money cap.
Quick Cheat Sheet for the Hits:
- Hotel Assassination: Invest in Betta Pharmaceuticals (BAWSAQ) before the hit. Rebound: Bilkington (LCN).
- The Vice Assassination: Invest in Fruit (BAWSAQ) before. Rebound: Facade (BAWSAQ).
- The Bus Assassination: This one is weird. Don't buy anything before. Buy Vapid (BAWSAQ) after the mission once the price drops. It’ll bounce back.
- The Construction Assassination: Invest in GoldCoast (LCN) before the mission.
How to Speed Up the Process
Waiting for stocks to rise is boring. You’re playing GTA, not a spreadsheet simulator. The fastest way to move time is to go to a safehouse and sleep.
You don't even have to actually save the game. Just trigger the sleep menu and then back out. Each time you do this, time jumps forward (6 hours for Franklin, 8 for Michael, and 12 for Trevor). Trevor is the "fastest" because he sleeps like a rock. Check your portfolio after every few sleep cycles.
A Note on Save Scumming
Always, always, always make a "hard save" before you start an assassination mission. Sometimes the market gets wonky. Sometimes you wait too long and the peak passes. If you have a manual save from before you spent the money, you can just reload and try again.
Beyond the Assassinations
What if you already did the missions? You can still make money, it’s just slower.
You’ve probably heard rumors that blowing up FlyUS planes at the airport makes AirEmu stock go up. Kinda? Sorta? It’s notoriously inconsistent in the modern version of the game. A more reliable way is to look for the "Tinkle" random event.
There’s a guy near Chumash whose car broke down. If you drive him to the airport, he gives you a stock tip for Tinkle (TNK) on the BAWSAQ. If you invest immediately with all three characters, you can snag a quick 30% gain.
Also, keep an eye on the "LCN" trends. Look for stocks that have bottomed out on their graph. If a stock is at its all-time low, it has nowhere to go but up. It’s a slow grind compared to Lester’s hits, but if you’ve already spent your assassination "cheats," it’s the only way left to reach the billionaire club.
To make the most of your investments, ensure you have completed "The Big Score" heist using the "Obvious" approach, as it generally yields a higher payout for your crew and the main trio, providing more capital for these market plays.
Next Steps for You:
- Load your latest save and check if you have any of Lester’s "L" missions left on the map.
- If you do, stop! Finish the main story first to get your bank account into the tens of millions.
- Once the story is done, use the "sleep" method with Trevor to advance time quickly and monitor your peaks.