You've finished the main story. You're sitting on roughly $30 million per character after the Union Depository heist, and you're feeling like a king. But then you look at the price of the Golf Club—$150 million. Suddenly, you're a peasant again.
Honestly, the only way to bridge that gap without spending 400 hours grinding is to exploit the lester assassination missions stock market swings. It’s basically a legal cheat code built right into the game. If you do it right, Michael, Franklin, and Trevor will end up with over $2 billion each. If you mess up the timing by even one in-game day, you’re leaving hundreds of millions on the table.
Most players jump into Lester’s hits too early. That's the biggest mistake. You have to do the first one, the Hotel Assassination, to progress the story. Fine. But for the love of everything, leave the rest until the credits roll. You need a huge "nut" to invest if you want those percentages to actually turn into billions.
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Why Timing Your Lester Assassination Missions Stock Buys is Everything
The stock market in Los Santos isn't random. It’s hard-coded to react to your violence. When you take out a CEO, their rival’s stock price skyrockets. It’s simple, really. But there is a "bounce back" effect that people often miss, which is where the real money lives.
Take the Multi-Target Assassination. You’re hitting jurors for Redwood Cigarettes. Naturally, their rival, Debonaire, sees a massive bump. You invest in Debonaire before the hit, sell at the peak, and then—this is the pro move—you dump all that cash into the crashed Redwood stock. It’s a double-dip. Redwood eventually recovers, and that’s how you turn a 80% gain into a 300% gain.
You’ve gotta be patient. Prices don't hit their peak the second the target dies. Sometimes it takes 24 hours. Sometimes it takes three days. I usually just have Trevor sleep for a while. He sleeps for 12 hours at a time, which is much faster than Franklin’s 8-hour naps for advancing the clock.
The Mission Breakdown (The Right Way)
The Hotel Assassination is the forced one. You’ll have about $1.5 million at this point if you've been smart. Invest everything into Betta Pharmaceuticals (BET) on the BAWSAQ exchange. You’re looking for a return of about 50%. Sell it, then check Bilkington (BIL) on LCN. It'll be at rock bottom. Buy it, wait about a week in-game, and sell it when it bounces back around 80% to 100%.
Next is the Multi-Target hit. This is the big one. Buy Debonaire (DEB) on LCN. After the mission, sell when it hits roughly 80% profit. Immediately—and I mean immediately—put every cent into Redwood (RWC). This stock is going to crawl back up. It takes about two to four days of in-game time, but the 300% ROI is what makes you a billionaire.
The Vice Assassination is straightforward. You’re targeting Facade to help Fruit. Buy Fruit (FRT) on BAWSAQ. Wait for a 50% gain and sell. Some people say you can buy Facade (FAC) after it crashes for a 30% rebound, but it's often finicky. If the graph looks like it's flatlining, just move on to the next hit.
Managing the BAWSAQ vs LCN Headache
It’s worth noting that the two exchanges behave differently. LCN is strictly offline. It responds to your actions in the story mode and doesn't care what’s happening in the real world. BAWSAQ used to be tied to the Rockstar Social Club, meaning if everyone was buying a certain stock, the price shifted for you too. In 2026, it’s a bit more stable for single-player, but it can still be slightly unpredictable.
Always make a manual save before you touch a mission. I can’t stress this enough. If you miss the peak and the stock starts dipping, you’ve just lost hours of progress. Save. Invest. Kill. Sleep. Check the phone. If the percentage goes down, reload.
The Final Payday: Construction and Bus Missions
The Bus Assassination is weird because you don't invest before the hit. You’re tanking Vapid’s stock. Kill the target, then watch Vapid (VAP) on BAWSAQ. It will crater. That's when you buy. It’ll bounce back 100%, doubling your money in about two days.
Finally, we have the Construction Assassination. This is the last big payout. Before the mission, put everything into Gold Coast (GCD) on the LCN. It’s a simple 80% gain. Since you should have nearly a billion dollars by now from the previous missions, that 80% gain will literally max out your bank account.
The hard cap for money in GTA 5 is exactly $2,147,483,647. If you go over that, the game’s 32-bit integer limit breaks and you might actually lose money or glitch your save. Once you're near $2.1 billion, you've won. You can buy the movie theaters, the golf course, and every hangar in the state.
Maximize Your Gains Right Now
- Finish "The Big Score" first. You need that $30 million base to start the real investing.
- Use all three characters. Don't just invest with Franklin. Switch to Michael and Trevor and put their heist cuts in the same stocks.
- Use the "Save and Sleep" method. Every time you sleep without saving, 6 to 12 hours pass. It's the fastest way to trigger market updates.
- Watch the "Return Percentage" in your portfolio. Don't look at the share price; look at that green number. If it stops going up for two consecutive sleep cycles, sell everything.
- Disable auto-save. If the market glitches (it happens), you want a clean state to return to.
Once you've cleared the final assassination and sold your Gold Coast shares, head over to the Los Santos Golf Club and buy it. You’ll still have enough left over to buy a fleet of Adder supercars for every character.