OK, they may be boring but they’re a great long-term investment. Of course, we’re talking about mutual funds. We make it easy to invest in mutual funds—we’re the only online broker that has zero commission for all our mutual funds transactions! And, we support more than 4,000 no transaction fee funds, more than 10,000 no-load funds and 4,000 load funds.

Let’s take a step back for a moment. What are mutual funds and what makes them so appealing for investors?

Mutual funds are investments that pool your money with other investors to invest in stocks, bonds, and other securities. Each investor owns shares, which represent a portion of the holdings of the fund. Through a mutual fund, you can invest in many different underlying assets in one purchase.

Simply put, they’re a great way to diversify your portfolio, diversify your holdings within a particular sector, and create a professionally managed, low maintenance portfolio with low minimum investments. Like investing in the stock market in general, mutual funds also offer the liquidity to buy or sell at your own discretion.

And, you have your choice of sectors, levels of risk, investment types and more. Why put your eggs in one basket when you can fully diversify with a mutual fund? And, the beauty is that professional money managers are doing all the heavy lifting for you—it’s their job to develop an optimally balanced portfolio for you, always keeping diversification in mind.

But with so many choices, it may seem a little daunting to decide which mutual funds may be best for you. Still, there are steps you should take to determine what approach you should take.

Ask yourself what return you would like to make and the risk level you are willing to tolerate.

Do some research and have a good understanding of the fund that you are buying.

You can find information about a fund's goals, strategy, performance, management, and fee structure in its prospectus. Compare performance over time and in different economic and market environments.

There may be certain industry sectors that are of particular interest to you, such as technology or energy, where you may want to invest.

A fund manager's experience and record, the fund's level of consistency, and its major investment holdings are other important factors to consider.

Investors can also find information and ratings of mutual funds in various outlets such as Morningstar, Forbes, Value Line and Barron's.

To learn more about investing in mutual funds at Firstrade, visit here.