Unless you chart the market and pay very, very close attention, just invest in market index funds and cost average. I don't know how many funds I have had for different reasons but I can tell you that overall, none of them beat the market (through an ETF) in the long run. Recommend index ETF's because you can buy and sell them like stocks. Mutual funds you have to wait until they get their "asset value" at end of day to sell or buy. And their fees really do eat into the returns over the long run. But I'm an investor v. a trader and that is just one mindset to the market.