If I wanted to create my own altcoin, what is the easiest/fastest/cheapest way to do it?
By "create" here I mean a coin I could give to my friends, offer to trade for other altcoins, and store in a wallet.
Since you posted nothing about what you are trying to accomplish with that coin, other than generalities that any coin should be able to do, then I suppose you just want to create a generic coin with no specific purpose, if that is the case there are already services which can do that for you for a small fee, however if your plan for this coin is something other than to just create your own coin and you are planning on making money with it, I warn you that this is way more difficult than what you think.