If you want to make serious money in GTA 5 with the least amount of effort, one of the easiest things you can do is to master the game's stock markets. To do that, players can complete GTA 5 Assassination Missions from Lester to manage the stock prices. By investing in certain stocks before doing a mission, players can net extremely high profit after reselling.

In this article, we are going to showcase the best way to make money via GTA 5 Lester Assassination Missions.

Franklin
Franklin performing an assassination in GTA 5.

1. How do Lester Assassination Missions affect the Stock Market?

You will eventually reach a point in GTA 5's story in which Franklin is able to accept a series of Assassination missions from Lester, which direct him toward eliminating prominent corporation characters. Each corporation has a rival and every time you kill, the stock rises and falls.

  • Only the first mission, the Hotel Assassination, is required to advance the story. For maximum gains, you should leave all other assassination missions until the main story is complete (the Big Score heist gives you a lot of money).
  • Overall, the Assassination missions in GTA 5 are fairly straightforward - you can just snipe the targets from afar with a sniper rifle.
Gta 5 Stock Market
When the CEO of a company gets killed, their stock would plummet. This is a great opportunity for you to swoop in.
  • Try to save up as much cash as you can and go through the Lester missions immediately while investing in stocks. After the last mission's investment, you can have up to $2,100,000,000 if you use all the cash earned from all previous missions. This is literally the hard limit of money you can have in GTA Online.
  • There are other ways to earn money in GTA 5, but this one is probably the best.
Sniper
Sniper rifles are the most effective weapon to do GTA 5 Assassination Missions.

2. How to make money in GTA 5 Assassination Missions?

Below is a list of which to invest for each assassination mission in GTA 5. For each assassination except the last two, you can invest 2 times, before and after.

Mission Investment Before Sell at return of Investment After Sell at return of
The Hotel Assassination Betta Pharmaceuticals (BAWSAQ) 50% Bilkinton Research (LCN) 80-200%
The Multi Target Assassination Debonaire (LCN) 60-90% Redwood Cigarettes (LCN) 300-400%
The Vice Assassination Fruit Computers (BAWSAQ) 30-60% Facade (BAWSAQ) 20-40%
The Bus Assassination - - Vapid (BAWSAQ) 100%
The Construction Assassination Gold Coast (LCN) 80% - -

Investment before mission

  • Invest all the money you have on all 3 characters into the company listed on the "Investment Before" column, right after you accept the mission from Lester.
  • Complete the assassination mission. Afterward, the stock will begin to rise. Wait for it to reach its peak listed in the "Sell at return of" collum to sell. You can look for the percentage return on the "Portfolio" page, which can be found on the market of the in-game browser.

It is important that you know when to sell, as the BAWSAQ and LCN take different amounts of time to reach their peaks.

  • BAWSAQ: Peaks immediately after you complete the mission and start to decline after one in-game day (48 minutes of real time).
  • LCN: Peaks after one in-game day then start to decline shortly afterward.
Gta 5 Stock Market
This is the portfolio page on which you need to observe the investment return percentage.

Investment after mission

Immediately invests all the money you got from the previous phase into the companies in the "Investment After" column. Unlike the previous phase, it takes longer for these stocks to increase:

  • BAWSAQ: Peak 2 days after the assassination then decline to average soon afterward.
  • LCN: Peak around 5 or 6 days after the assassination then decline to average soon afterward.
Lester Gta V
Becoming a hitman in Lester's GTA 5 assassination missions.

Notes

  • You can advance time by sleeping. It is better to get all the money in one go rather than wait naturally and risking to miss it. The best character for skipping time is Trevor, as he sleeps for 12 hours per nap.
  • Remember to check your Percentage Return in the Portfolio on your phone's browser each time you wake up.
  • Manually save the game before skipping just in case you miss the peak.
  • Always start the assassinate missions on Monday, as the Stock Market only operates on a business day.
  • Save all the cash earned from the previous assassination mission for the next investment. Remember to not spend any cash until all assassination missions are done.

3. What to do after completing GTA 5 Assassination Missions?

After working your way through these missions, you should have a big enough fortune to buy up every vehicle, business and building available in the game world. Don't bother with the stock market ever again, as there are no further guarantees or big bonuses left. This should allow you to complete a lot of achievements in GTA 5 that require money.

Interested in more of our articles related to the GTA Series? Check out this article to find out more about How Many Missions Are In GTA 5? How To Find Missions & Other FAQs