Many investors don't try to hand-pick market-beating stocks. With index investing, you can benefit from the wealth-building long-term trends of the stock market with a single ticker. Many will settle for the broad S 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) index, tracked by the efficient Vanguard S 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) and SPDR S 500 ETF Trust (NYSEMKT: SPY) exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

That's a robust strategy, mirroring the strategy of investing genius Jack Bogle and recommended in The Fool's primer for beginning investors. Given a few decades of value-building patience, you're almost guaranteed to make a lot of money this way.

But some investors want a little more, and place a heavier bet on the growth opportunity of the tech sector. In that case, the Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ: QQQ) mirrors the gains or losses of the tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 index. It's a higher-risk, higher-reward idea, tracking a smaller basket of more volatile stocks.

Continue reading

Source Fool.com