Quote from: Chapman on July 22, 2012, 08:43 amFunny, I just opened a *insert cheesy internet broker here* account not too long ago with a few grand.The annoying thing about having one with so little in it is, I basically have to make a 1% gain just to cover commission, so I have to know it will make a significant pop instead of profiting from little waves.I've made a hundred or two (correctly predicted the most fascist outcome on ACA ruling), but nothing worth writing home about. For learning, investopedia as a whole is great. I've spent days on there. Zerohedge.com is also pretty nice for finance in general.If you're good at predicting things, there's also Intrade...basically buy or sell a commodity representing whether or not something will happen that trades in between $0 and $10 until the event does or doesn't happen. If it does, the value of the commodity automatically goes to $10; if it doesn't, $0. It has elections, box office results, etc.I hear you buddy! Investing in the stock market is not nearly as simple or as inexpensive as it should be!My own broker charges a flat fee of GBP 10 each time I buy or sell shares* which I find easier to work with than an investment system. One way to grow your wealth as I think I mentioned above is to start your own investment cooperative so that you and others with financial savvy can pool your resources to make larger gains. As I said a sensible minimum investment per venture is around USD 3,000 if you want to see any kind of significant gain but of course if there are twelve of you each putting in USD 250 for instance, then this lowers the risk** and allows you to start investing small amounts from your monthly salary. This also splits the transaction fee between all of you, though of course your gains are fractionally lower too. V.*No doubt an overweight SOCA Detective munching on his doughnut is yelling at a Subordinate :"Get me a list of brokers who charge a flat fee in the UK! I think we can nail this guy down once and for all! ;-)**Actually the risk is still the same but your losses are proportionately less i.e you only stand to lose USD 250 rather than USD 3,000 in this instance.