I am new to this just got intrested by watching all the business channels one when nothing else was on to watch. So please take it easy on me. I was looking to start trading and was looking at Fox Business online.  I wanted to buy stock in AIG and seen the bid and ask price. Next to those it said the bid price was 1.58 x 3,500, and the ask price was 1.59 x 500. Does that mean that I have to buy the minium of 3,500 or 500 shares worth or can I buy as little as I want. Basically I guess I want to know is there a minium amount that has to be bought so that one can trade. 

No you don't have to order at those volumes, you can order as much as you want. This question is answered in detail here:

http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/06/bidasknumbers.asp

Hope that helps!

Assuming that you are referring to purchases made in the game... you can purchase as little as you wish, as leed0g says, but keep in mind that each trade costs you $10, If you purchase 1 share, it has to make over $20 before you make a profit on it... because it cost you $10 for buying, and another $10 for selling it.  There is a limit in the game of 25% of your portfolio value for each stock, so if you spend 20% on a particular stock, you cannot spend another 10% on the same stock...

So while there is no actual minimum, you don't want to buy so little that your stock will never make that $20 cost, and there is a maximum.

HTH ...

GOOD LUCK and HAPPY TRADING!

 if you are new to the stock market, I suggest you do what I did awhile back - paper trade

 I went to a search engine (such as Google), typed in something like "how to trade stocks" and proceeded from there.

It's tough to make money, and the market is built to be heavily tilted towards the big boys/girls with all the money. And the way they make money is to take it from you and I.

So, practice first before you start with real money

 That is why I like this.  Because it is helping me to practice for the real thing.