Why would anyone buy stocks when index funds (say S&P500) are safer/better long-term?
Depends on your risk tolerance. Stocks are inherently more risky than index funds. That's why people would just recommend index funds. You have less to worry about.To explain in more detail:Stocks have not only market risk but also various market component (style) and industry risks. Style refers to things like high vs low dividend yield (maybe high dividend stocks outperform low in general), market cap (low vs high) among many other things. If you want to get more complicated, European companies have exposure to different countries (if something happens to Poland, how does this affect my European stock?). Industry refers to things like exposure to Semis, Consumer staples, Consumer discretionary.THEN, on top of this, you have stock specific risk. Things like company management (good or bad? honest/trustworthy or shifty?), employee talent, intangibles, balance sheet, accounting mishaps. That's why you see a stock like GE crater despite market going up. The company is doing something poorly!So why index funds? Because you don't need to worry about these things!However, to compensate for that risk, stocks ideally would outperform an index, ideally. Of course we know that is not true. You have stocks that crater, go bankrupt, and stocks that go to the moon. Stocks that go sideways (AMD), go up like a rocket (NFLX), and some that don't make any sense (SNAP/KODK).Regardless, a good strategy is to combine a core index/broad based ETF(s) with a select number of stocks that you wish to invest in the long term. You don't want to overallocate to an individual stock even if it's amazon. Why? Because you don't have enough time in the day to analyze everything about those stocks because of all the risks I mentioned! That's why investors pay hedge fund professionals to do all the analysis and make the investments for them.If you spread the capital out, you have a greater chance of hitting the high stock specific returns and buffer from companies that do poorly. For example, you could have NVDA which is up several fold. An index fund can not give you that type of return. Likewise V, MSFT...solidly outperforming the market. Remember that an index fund doesn't pick the winners and the losers, picks everything good and bad. But you can have that and mix with some companies you like so that you overweight towards better companies and generate potentially better risk adjusted returns in the long run.
What are the best altcoins to invest in 2018?
Firstly, you should do your own research. Don’t pick any crypto just because other people say it is going to “RISE TO THE MOON” in 2018, or because you saw a 50% increase in 1 day. I cannot stress this enough, don’t do what other people are doing but think for yourself. Don’t be one of those FOMO people. Be critical and look at each coin from different perspectives. Ask questions like:Why is this coin on the market? How is it different than the other coins? What does it promise?What is the team behind that coin? What are their visions? Do I agree with them? What are they trying to improve?Look at the market cap. Never think that coins like Ripple which have unlimited supply will shoot as high as Bitcoin stands now (doesn’t mean Ripple is bad, just saying it’s mathematically impossible)Based on the criteria listed above I have selected:IOTA, ETH, Ripple, FUN, Stellar, Litecoin, OmiseGo, EOS, and Cardano.