I am looking to invest a small amount ($15,000) in med-high risk stocks--does anyone have any suggestions? I have a few ideas, but nothing that really stands out to me as the right choice.

Unless you really know what you are doing, now is a bad time to invest, the market is extremely volatile right now. Unless you are a value/long term investor its kind of risky to invest even in so called 'safe' stocks because the market is so volatile.

Also, I wouldn't take stock advice from anyone, that is one of the fastest ways to lose money.

I would get the books"The Intelligent Investor" by Benjamin Graham as well as "How To Make Money In Stocks" By William J. O'Neil.

Those are two very different investment approaches, you have to decide what kind of investing works best for you. Of all of the investors I have studied, every single freaking one of them placed strong emphasis on not taking stock tips, its a fast way to lose your shirt.

Overall right now is a risky time to be buying, the market is highly volatile and unless you exactly what you are doing, chances are you are going to get burned. It's possible to make a lot of money by taking advantage of the volatility of the market, but most people just lose their savings.

You seem like you are in this for big, quick gains? It's doable, but you better go in with a very good game plan, the market is changing so quickly right now that you need to be able to stay on top of things 24/7 to maximize profits and minimize losses. When you say high to med risk stocks, this makes me think you are definately not a value investor. You should probably look into growth investing.

One last thing, if you buy and the value of the stock drops by 10% or more, just sell otherwise you could lose big time. In such a volatile market, its so important to minimize your losses. Read Williams book and that should guide you as to what to invest in if you are gung-ho for making money in this market, if your still in doubt - subscribe to Investors Business Daily.

Well I am not worried about losing everything, that is why I am keeping it to a small investment.

I was thinking of finding a new online pharm. company--good idea/bad idea?

First of all, investing in a industry is no guarantee of a particular company. There is very little way for me to evaluate whether a online pharmaceutical company will go up or down - you have to evaluate each individual company to see if they are a good investment or not.

Naturally when an industry does well then the companies within that industry usually do well as well. However, some companies make ALOT bigger gains in stock price than others. Which company you invest in for a particular industry can mean the difference between 100% profit and 1000% profit.

If you know/like pharmaceutical companies that could be a good starting point, however there are more profitable ways to finding good industries to invest in. Also,

Buy William O'Neils book.

The man started with $500 and built that up to millions of dollars. It's one thing to start with a million and make 2 million but its a whole different story to take $500 and turn it into millions. You have to know how to evaluate stocks. If you want to make some serious money, especially in this market, then you have got to go where the money is.

I know people say buy what you like or some crap like that. What you have to do is buy what everyone else is buying - because that is what causes prices to go up. Of course eventually the value of a stock can either become overvalued or no new money is being pumped into it and that causes investors to sell, thus prices drop. Which is one of the dangers of a volatile market, however there are systems for sidestepping this little problem.

Here is the thing, do you want to make money or do you want to invest in a pharmaceutical company? Investors who only want to make money focus only on companies which promise to make them the most money possible, regardless of what industry they are in. You have to stay focused on your end goal, to make money.

This is going to be an interesting experiment

I think I will start with half the money, maybe $7,000 considering I know nothing... We will see how well any random individual can do in the stock market with no knowledge--I will keep you updated~

Good luck Flex. I'm sure I would be pretty good on the stock market given my analytical background and how many simulated stock markets I've played on over the years lol. Its a shame I don't give a shit about most current events, its just white noise to me, and you really have to be getting the news before it hits the tabloids to keep that money growing and safe.