The old dilemma: stocks or mutual funds?

I've realised recently that some people find my attitude of equal opportunities to various types of investments available to the individual a bit unusual. Instead of 'equal opportunities', I should probably say 'sabka saath, sabka vikas', but the idea is the same. In this day and age of finfluencers, a routine modus operandi to gather an audience is to be against something. Everything has some negative points, and one surefire way of gathering a crowd is to say that here, let me save you from losing all your money on X or Y type of investment - this is why they are evil, and this is why you must do Z, which I'm here to promote. The thing to understand is that there are very few types of investments that are unmitigated disasters. Apart from a few like derivatives, non-term insurance products and fraudulent 'assets' like crypto, practically every kind of asset class has some usefulness for some investors, in some situations and in some proportion. The key is to make the right choices. I've always advocated for putting a significant