questions about stocks and stuff

if you pick a very good, consistent stock.. expect roughly a 10% rate of return annually.

that means, if the three of you are putting down $500 each, expect to split the $150 earned to roughly $50 bucks a piece. There's no sure answer to tell you what stocks are good persay, you have to understand the industry that you're investing in, and the market position of the firm that you're investing in. Stay away from stagnating corporations, and try to get in with an innovative company.

penny stocks are shit, but the 1/100 time you pick a good one, you can bank a shit-ton. highly advise against it though. although, if you're only investing $500, it's probably not worth the effort unless you're just learning the ropes and intend on depositing more into it every month or pay-cheque or whatever.

tons of literature on the internet, google it

finance has a massive expert problem, wherein most of the experts don't actually know shit about how the economy or real life actually functions. be very wary and skeptical as you enter the world of finance.

tossing in 1500 like this is pretty pointless

there is also massive randomness and uncertainty inherent in finance.. similar to poker (very superficially)

well with no prior experience I can tell you that $500 is good enough to seed a retirement acount, nothing more. With a Roth IRA, if you have worked for taxable wages in the previous year, you can trade without taxation on capital gains or dividends. The drawback is that you can't touch the money until you're 65 years old without suffering some massive penalties.

Starting up a regular liquid trading account IS subject to specific taxation requirements, which I don't know too much about. What I can tell you is that you can do your own research and trade online for only $7 per order. These fees eat into your EXPECTED profits and is just not worth considering at this moment. you guys will save yourselves a lot of work by betting it all on red; its less exciting tho imo

I started with about the same amount of seed money as you 5 years ago and slowly funneled in money here and there. Just build up a few grand and do tons of reading on the side to get at least a baseline understanding of how securities work. Some intro books by motley fool will give you good insight on the discipline you need to get into this crapshoot business. surprisingly, some of the emotional requirements from poker transfer well into this field

Source: managed personal portfolio for 5 yrs and studying to become a portfolio manager

Buy low, sell high.