The investment landscape is a virtual minefield to the untrained. It presents a myriad of opportunities to be embraced and threats to be avoided. Business savvy individuals with a keen eye for detail typically fare better than greenhorns dipping their feet in an ocean of investment opportunities. For starters, What do you invest in? Who do you invest with? Where does your investment stand the best chance of growth? Why should you trust one broker over another?

The world's premier stock markets, including the New York Stock Exchange, Dow Jones Industrial Average, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 have enjoyed an unparalleled run of success in recent years. This is due in no small part to the performance of the US economy, the business confidence index, relatively low inflation, and a repatriation of business back to the homeland. Monetary policy and fiscal policy measures have aligned to create a growth-oriented paradigm in US stock markets.

In Europe, Asia, Latin America, and beyond, varying degrees of success have been experienced in the financial markets. Brexit concerns, rising debt, and uncertainty, trade wars et al are bugbears that many European markets like the CAC 40, DAX 30, FTSE 100, Nikkei 225, Hang Seng, Shanghai & Shenzhen Stock Exchanges are dealing with. Some countries face crippling employment shortages like Japan, while others are dealing with red-hot economies of scale like China. The managed chaos of the global economy is difficult to predict, even for the most experienced traders, analysts, and investors.

That is of course, until now…

Fortunately, there are powerful tools, resources, and platforms geared towards making sense of global markets. In economics, an assumption known as ceteris paribus is invoked when individual economic considerations are assessed. Ceteris paribus (all things being equal) holds other variables constant while specific economic conditions are being tested.

As an investor, it's impossible to know how employment, housing starts, inflation, the US dollar index, Fed activity, global demand, currency wars, sanctions, and a smorgasbord of other variables will impact your decision to invest in this stock or that stock. The best we can hope for is a logical correlation between variables and the attendant impact on stocks, commodities, indices, currencies, and beyond.

What types of investment options are currently available?

Savvy investors tend to diversify their portfolios for maximum growth and yield. The range of investment options comprises a combination of high-risk and low-risk alternatives. A growth-oriented investment portfolio typically includes a mix of 40% US stocks, 23% foreign stocks, 7% emerging market stocks, 13% US small cap, 7% US mid cap, 6% municipal bonds, and 4% US aggregate bonds.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, a low-risk portfolio would be heavily weighted in favor of bonds. For example, you may invest 37% in municipal bonds, 22% in US aggregate bonds, 7% in high yield bonds, and 4% in inflation protected bonds. Stocks tend to take a backseat in a risk averse financial portfolio.

Having said that, how does one go about picking the ripest stocks, or those about to blossom in the financial markets?

This is an unenviable task and certainly not one tailored to novice investors. Brand-name stocks like Alphabet Inc (GOOG), Facebook (News - Alert) (FB), Amazon (AMZN), Tesla Incorporated (TSLA), and others may appear to be attractive propositions, but are they? How much gas is left in the tank? What of stock market downturns? These are all issues that plague investors, traders and analysts on a daily basis. Besides stocks and bonds, currencies and indices, there are also hybrid options like ETFs (exchange traded funds), Cryptocurrencies, futures markets and beyond.

For the most part, it is impossible to eliminate risk from any financial investment. This is an intractable component of the process. However, the degree of risk you're willing to assume plays a big part in the potential rewards you stand to gain. As a rule, high-risk investments should be eschewed (pharmaceutical companies, biotech companies, new tech start-ups) since these companies often shutter operations after seed capital and investor funding runs out. Of course, this is not always the case and many notable exceptions abound.

Among the many high-profile brokerages, trading platforms and investment arenas, one particular company stands out.

We scoured the literature in search of an all-encompassing trading platform and found one. Financial consultants agree: WealthSimple meets the needs of its investors according to the reviews. This trading brokerage offers three tiers of investment opportunities. Basic up to $100,000, Black over $100,000, and Generation over $500,000. Depending on your individual circumstances, it is possible to pay minimal investment fees, and enjoy all the advantages of VIP-style service such as dividend reinvesting, automatic deposits, automatic portfolio rebalancing, and expert financial advice.

Of course, it's always best to play around with the sliders to see precisely how easy it is to save on investment fees over time. Some of the biggest hurdles for investors are trading fees, investment fees, monthly maintenance fees, account management fees and other costs associated with trying to establish a viable financial portfolio. We found the aforementioned investment service particularly well-suited to investors wanting to minimize costs and maximise benefits.

Chasing the Ideal Investment Portfolio

Balance is the best way to success in the investment world. By diversifying your portfolio, you can effectively have your eggs in many different baskets. As a novice investor, your best bet is to go with a tried and trusted brokerage which understands where you're coming from. The objective in all cases is to minimize risk and maximize reward. A fund is much safer than a stock since the fund tracks multiple stocks in a sector or category.

For example, you may be particularly partial to social media stocks like Facebook, Twitter (News - Alert), Snapchat and so forth, but Twitter and Snapchat are performing particularly poorly in the financial markets. Rather than putting all your eggs into one basket, you may be inclined to choose a fund that tracks the top tech stocks like Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple (News - Alert) and so forth.

Failsafe tips to help you succeed:
 

• Do your homework: don't blindly accept the fees that brokerages impose upon you.
• Markets typically experience cyclical behaviour. This means there are peaks and troughs at regular intervals. The only way you can ride out this volatility and variance is by investing regularly. Automatic deposits are a great way to begin.
• Take a look at the stock market from year to year. Tech stocks may have been the darlings of yesteryear, but they may be the bears of the present. Automatic rebalancing of your financial portfolio is sacrosanct. Your portfolio cannot possibly grow if it is improperly skewed towards the wrong investments.
• Diversify your portfolio to include different types of investments. For example, gold is the perfect counterbalance to poorly performing stock markets. A good mix of gold shares, gold ETFs, gold funds, and physical gold bullion is always a good idea.
• Automatically invest dividends earned through stocks in your financial portfolio. This is how growth takes place.
• Use a brokerage or investment service which is geared towards quick & easy financial management.

Seasoned professionals and trading experts readily attest to the merit of passive investments which track market activity over a long period of time. Markets have a pulse of their own, and it takes tremendous effort to understand the inner mechanics of this complex global system.