What is your prefered form of investment? Stocks, mutual funds, bonds, forex, commodity, real estate,gold? Why

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Well, this question is easiest to answer by eliminating the forms I do not prefer. Those are real estate, gold, forex, and commodities. Each for a different reason. That leaves mutual funds, bonds, and stocks. At the moment bonds are not on my shopping list. The returns are negative currently. So I am stuck with mutual funds and stocks. Mutual funds offer the advantage of diversification and very little specific risk. They have the disadvantage of expenses and relying on someone else's judgement which may or may not be up to par. However, for certain areas mutual funds offer decided advantages over stocks, such as mutual funds that invest in Indian companies or Chinese companies for example, areas where their expertise should be vastly superior to mine. Mutual funds also offer the advantage of making it relatively easy to make an investment. It is somewhat a simpler process to find a good mutual fund than to find a good stock.

Real estate: using a REIT as a real estate investment vehicle has advantages that should be considered. I consider that under the heading of investing in stocks.

Gold: Investing in the stock of a gold mining company would be my preferred alternative.

Commodities: DE would be my preferred agriculturaly commodity investment. COP or DVN or CHK my preferred oil and gas commodity play.

at the moment I am only doing fx

Mutual funds...basically NFOs( new fund offers) ..as they start from basic value. You should try to apply for open ended scheme so that u can withdraw at any time.
Also SIP is very good..

I like mutual funds coz they are not correlated to stocks, that is if a stock is losing heavily my fund might not follow immediately. The recent stock market fall out did not harm me like the was some stocks did. Because of that reason i love the funds. Unless they predominantly invest in mortgages!!!

Stocks and gold/silver, because you choose what you are investing in and you know exactly what you are putting your money into.

I have to say I prefer stocks, simply for the flexibility. You can purchase practically everything you mentioned above through stocks and ETF's. Stocks have the distinct advantage of one of the highest historical returns. Mutual funds typically underperform the markets, which is why I tend to avoid them. Plus, they are just not as much fun as stocks. Gold and other commodities can be purchased in ETF's, which is preferable to futures, as it reduces some of the risk of dealing in the futures market yourself, which can be very risky if you are not experienced. On top of this, transaction fees for ETF's are similar to those of stocks, which are typically lower than futures, mutual funds and bonds. Bonds are great as a defensive play, but you sacrafice the strength of compounding at higher rates of return that stocks generally have. Basically, each has its advantages, and deserves a place in a well-balance portfolio, however, given that I am young, I prefer stocks, as this is the time for me to be aggressive as an investor, and stocks are a great way to do this. Just my opinion, I hope it helps.

Best of luck!

Brendan Prewitt

I have split my assets between 3 month Cd's and stocks. I choose individual stocks over mutual funds because I have the time to study them.