Choose Your Weapon and Choose Carefully - Trading Among the Various Asset Classes

With so many different securities to choose from, investors have a vast array of options with which to trade and boost their portfolios' returns. But with so many choices, how is an investor to decide? The next part of that question is figuring out if it's even prudent to limit yourself to just one asset class. Of course we recommend having a diversified portfolio and with some diligent research, you'll be able to find the right mix of securities to fit your personal comfort level. To do that, your research should include a brief analysis of the advantages of stocks, options, forex, futures and exchange traded funds (ETFs). Let's take a look at each right now.

Stocks And ETFs: Good Starting Points

Owning stock is the most basic form of investing and even if you don't stocks directly, you probably own some through a mutual fund or retirement plan. Owning a share of stock essentially makes you one of many owners in a company's business. When the stock rises, you make money. When it falls, you lose money (unless you've sold the shares short). It's that easy and the simplicity of stock ownership has made it the investment option of choice for millions of investors.

ETFs take stock ownership a step further. Considered a twist on investing in mutual funds, ETFs give investors exposure to a group of stocks in a specific sector or index. That's a feature many investors love about mutual funds, but ETFs are much more liquid, trading like shares of stock. ETFs are great for investors that want to make long or short bets on a particular sector, but don't want to pick just one or two stocks.

The bottom line is investors should have both stocks and ETFs in their portfolios. Another advantage of ETFs is there are hundreds of ETFs designed to give investors short exposure without directly shorting a single stock, so ETFs can act as a great hedging tool in your portfolio.

The Leveraged Investment Vehicles

There are certainly advantages (and pitfalls) of using investment choices that thrive on leverage. Futures, forex and options all fit the bill when it comes to using leverage. As leverage pertains to options, investors can control a good chunk of a company's stock for the life of an options contract without the expense of buying the shares directly. For example, you might be able to buy a call option on Coke for $1 a share and that would equal $100 (100 shares per contract x $1 = $100) when the stock is trading for $50.

Best of all, access to leverage with the most basic options strategies limits risk. When buying a put or call contract, the biggest loss you can sustain is the cost of the contract, but stock ownership (or a short sale) increases our risk profile dramatically.

Don't forget about leverage with futures and forex. These two trading arenas are home to some of the biggest potential winners and losers you'll see in trading and that's due to leverage. Most forex brokers grant traders 50:1 or 100:1 leverage on their capital deposits. That means if you deposit $10,000 in a forex trading account, you'll have as much as $500,000 (if not more) to trade with. Remembering that each pip on a standard forex lot is worth $10, you quickly see how big money can be made or lost in a heartbeat in forex trading.

Futures instruments trade in a similar fashion to forex and it is important to note that investors can lose more than their initial deposit while trading both futures and forex. Since it is a good idea to have some commodities exposure in your portfolio, we like the use of Emini futures, which come with lower risk, as a way of integrating futures into your investment arsenal.

So What Asset Is Best For You?

If you're a long-term investor, a mix of all of the aforementioned assets might benefit your portfolio. To get futures and forex exposure, consider managed futures or currency ETFs. For active traders, start with stocks and mix in some basic options strategies on the side before working your way up to futures and forex.

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