Getting The Benefits Of Diversified Portfolio Beyond Mutual Funds
In most of the cases when it comes to elderly people or those who are not interested in day trading and prefer to make a stable and solid investment through share accusation mutual funds is a great way to invest. But even those who are interested in regular trading mutual funds present a healthy short term investment.
There is yet another way to make a sound investment and that is through Merrill Lynch HOLDRs. These are a new breed of investment bonds designed on the pattern of mutual funds but a bit more focused on industry niche. These holding certificates let you have a certificate of shares of different companies of the same group. 
Earlier when an investor wanted to invest in a certain industry or sector he would be forced to buy shares of different companies, paying brokerage commission again and again on each trade deal that you carryout. These transaction commissions generally reduce the investment returns over a longer period of time. HOLDR now saves that bundle of commissions as your broker can only claim one transaction commission on the complete set of stocks for different companies.

Presently they are seventeen types of HOLDRs in which you can invest. They are:
    * Biotech HOLDRS
    * Broadband HOLDRS
    * B2B Internet HOLDRS
    * Europe 2001 HOLDRS
    * Internet HOLDRS
    * Internet Architecture HOLDRS
    * Internet Infrastructure HOLDRS
    * Market 2000+ HOLDRS
    * Oil Services HOLDRS
    * Pharmaceutical HOLDRS
    * Regional Bank HOLDRS
    * Retail HOLDRS
    * Semiconductor HOLDRS
    * Software HOLDRS
    * Telecom HOLDRS
    * Utilities HOLDRS
    * Wireless HOLDRS
Each type will hold a number of shares of different companies from that type of industry which is fixed at its value and offers all the facilities that a share holder gets.