Lester's Assassination Missions Stocks Guide

In GTA 5's story mode/single player, you can do assassination missions for Lester as Franklin. Each time you carry out a hit, the stock market will be affected. In this guide, we'll tell you exactly which stock will be affected by your hit, so that you can invest in that stock with all the money that each of your three characters has (Michael, Franklin, Trevor). This way, you can make a TON of money.

Original Method

Tips and Prerequisites

If you want to really cash-in, wait until the end of the game (when you've completed the campaign and the "The Big Score" and should have lots of money) to do the assassination missions. This will let you invest the most money and also realize the most profits... Each character will have between $40 and $100 MILLION!

You also need to cycle through each of your characters before each mission so that you can invest all their money in the relevant stock. And, before you start a mission, make sure you quick save, just in case you make a mistake.

One final thing — if you need to advance some days in order for the stock price to move as desired, go to a safehouse and fall asleep. This will pass the time enough for your investments to spike. Then sell them!

The List of Stocks

Invest in the stock listed below before each assassination mission and follow any other notes. It's that easy!

Assassination Mission	Stock to Purchase Before Mission	Notes
Hotel Assassination	BetaPharmaceuticals (BAWSAQ)	Sell Beta after the mission (80% profit). Then wait at least three days in-game and purchase Bilkington (LCN), then wait a week or more for it to rebound and sell it before the second mission (80% profit).
The Multi Target Assassination	Debonaire Cigarettes (LCN)	Sell Debonaire after this second mission (80% profit) then purchase Redwood (LCN). Do not do the third mission yet, but instead advance the game for two days then sell Redwood (300% profit)
The Vice Assassination	Fruit (BAWSAQ)	Sell Fruit after the mission (50% profit)
The Bus Assassination	Vapid (BAWSAQ)	Invest in Vapid only AFTER you complete the mission. Do not do the fifth mission yet, but instead advance the game for two days then sell Vapid (100% profit)
The Construction Assassination	GoldCoast (LCN)	Sell GoldCoast after the mission (80% profit)

Assassination Mission Investing 2.0

Some dedicated fans (thanks Brent, for sending this in) have found ways to squeeze even more cash out of the above method.

The concept of this particular method relies on using Bilkington (BIL) to boost your maximum investments. The key is to make the company tank at a particular point in the game.

Preparing the Stock Decrease

Progress as usual and complete everything you can up until the Hotel Assassination mission, and make sure you have completed the preparations for Blitz Play. Then, you need to complete the Hotel Assassination and afterwards, do Blitz Play.

When you start the Blitz Play mission, make sure you are currently controlling Michael. This should be the default, but it is key. Play up until the point where Michael drops the envelope to Devin Weston and then immediately switch to Franklin.

At this point Franklin will still be sitting in the getaway car, so you can drive straight to Devin to complete the first recovery mission. Then you need to switch over the Trevor and complete the second recovery mission. When finished, before you proceed you have to sell all of your Betta Pharmaceuticals stock — but do not buy Bilkington yet.

Wait for the Stock Decrease

Continue playing the game as usual from here — Michael will run a mission for Solomon Richards and Madrazo, meet up with Trevor, take Franklin to Michael's house for the hijacking mission and more, all up until the Paleto Bay Heist mission is reached. You can just play normally through all these missions.

Invest

At this point, Bilkington stock will be at the minimum it can be. If you were successful, all three of the protagonists — Franklin, Trevor, and Michael — will have an extra $400,000 to be used for investments, and if you use that to buy up the now-dirt cheap Bilkington stock, the final payout from all of the investment assassinations at the end of the game will be boosted by $16,000,000!

Frequently Asked Questions

When should you do Lester's assassination missions?: It is better to do Lester's GTA 5 assassination missions after you have finished the main story missions. This is because the stock market reacts more significantly to your actions towards the end of the game. Plus, you'll have more money later in the game anyway.
Which Lester missions are mandatory?: There are three assassination missions that are required to progress the story. These missions cannot be skipped. However, it's important to note that these mandatory missions are not the ones you should focus on for stock market manipulation and maximizing profits.
How to use the stock market with Lester's missions?: You need to invest in stocks that are directly affected by the assassination missions. The full text of this article above tells you which ones to invest in or sell.
How to invest in Lester's assassination missions?: Before doing Lester's assassination missions, check our guide on which stocks to invest in (the article directly above). Save before doing any investments and before starting the missions. Also, keep in mind that you'll gain access to additional Lester missions after completing the main assassination missions.