Buying individual stocks, is the best way to get the largest return. Is it risky, maybe. However if you utilize the strategy to cut your losses with a drop of 10% you are reducing your risk. The upside of picking the right stock can be huge as much as 50% to 200% gain. Just be smart. Don't hang on to losing stocks.

Also make sure your portfolio is diversified and does not have too many stocks in the same sector. Also make sure that you do not have too many super risky stocks. For example if you're buying small biomed companies you wouldn't want to try more than a couple at a time and make sure you sale if it drops 10 percent. Or in that case you may just be better to off buying the ETF if you don't have the nerve.