Can you clarify what you mean by what type of investment is recommended?
Are you looking for a recommended distribution of your portfolio to each of those buckets, or for something else?
I’m going to presume you want to know my thoughts on each of those items.
I’d stay away from OTCs as they’re volatile in general and not as liquid as most stocks and ETFs. If you had to sell in a hurry, you could get some nasty fills.
ETFs, if you’re not very experienced is usually the best way to go to be diversified and still participate in the market.
Pretty much almost ANY mutual fund can be represented by a similar ETF, but with all the benefits of liquidity and lower admin costs.
For example, want to trade the major indexes, use
QQQQ for Nasdaq
DIA – DOW 30
SPX or SPY for the S&P 100/500
IWN – Russell 2000
and so on.
Want to trade energy or oil, you’ve got
XLE – energy
OIH – oil holders
XOI – Oil companies
OIS – oil services
and so on.
There’s an ETF for everything.
And then, if you didn’t want the diversification of an ETF, you can go directly to stocks.
Since buried in each index are both good and bad sectors, buried in each sector are both good and bad stocks,
Just like trading sectors can be more profitable than trading the indexes, trading stocks can be more profitable than trading sectors, IF you know what you’re doing.
Be careful. Education is important. Just like you can make more money faster choosing different instruments, if you don’t know what you’re doing, you can also lose money faster as well.
Education is the key. Discipline and money management are in the top three as well.
Good luck and I hope that helps!