As a product manufacturer, Wall Street is entering a harvest year.

From high-yield options trading to packaged bank loan funds, various strategies are trying to bring professional investment advantages to ordinary investors.

Financial institutions are all promoting their innovative trading to customers who are troubled by economic and Fed policy uncertainty. However, almost no investment portfolio can make money as simply as buying and holding.$S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$.

Fund managers have invested heavily in various so-called diversified strategies. However, they have had to watch the famous index (S&P 500) perform better than three-quarters of the fund on the exchange in the past year. This is the worst performance since at least 2010. The favorite performance of mutual fund managers is even worse than one of their least favorite funds, which is one of the worst half-year performances in years. Julian Emanuel, chief stock, derivatives and quantitative strategist at Evercore ISI, said, "In a low-volatility, high-return market environment like 2024, investors should stick to basic strategies - buying simple and understandable index funds, as well as active mutual funds with reliable performance records, which can provide basic returns." "No need to complicate strategies. Simplicity contains beauty."

Any investor who dares to deviate from the hegemony of the largest market-cap-weighted index has been hit hard time and again. Thanks to the snowball effects of companies such as JPMorgan and Nvidia, this is a big boon for investors standing on the right side. The S&P 500 index has risen by about 15%, still in June. The world's most watched stock index has just touched its 31st historical high in 2024, up for eight weeks out of the past nine.$NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$The victim of the concentrated rise is diversification. Bonds as an asset class are still underperforming this year. Relevant index tracking raw materials only rose 3%. According to analysis, only 23% of equity ETFs can outperform the S&P 500. Strategies that pursue performance, such as actively managed ETFs, quantitative-based intelligent$Microsoft (MSFT.US)$The snowball effect of companies such as the company. This is a great blessing for investors who stand on the right side. The S&P 500 has risen about 15%, still in June. The world's most watched stock index has just hit its 31st historical high in 2024, and has risen for 8 weeks out of the past 9 weeks.

investment and thematic investment, are actually the worst-performing strategies. Despite the continued rise of indices like the S&P 500 and$BETA (0263.MY)$, investors who buy and hold are still making pots of money. But for many analysts, this is still a worrisome problem. They point out that in a market, NVIDIA alone has brought more than 30% increase to the index, which is precarious.

The urge to look for investment choices other than the S&P 500 index stems not only from the over-rise of the index, but also from an unreadable economic and monetary policy background.$NASDAQ 100 Index (.NDX.US)$Just six months ago, traders bet that the Federal Reserve would cut rates six times, but this week they were forced to admit that loose monetary policy is imminent as data showed the first expansion in U.S. service activity in more than two years. Industrial production has also grown.

"In the second half of the year, diversification and risk reduction are the right approach," said Michael O'Rourke, chief market strategist at Jonas Trading Company.""Investors should not expect Nvidia to continue to be almost the only driving force behind the strong performance of the S&P 500 index."

In addition to traditional diversification strategies, ETFs that quickly expand their cash flows from selling options and combine them with bets on stocks or stock indices, even considering their high yield payments, lag far behind benchmarks. The largest ETF is JPMorgan's Equity Premium Income ETF, whose total return has risen by about 6%. For defensive investors, putting money in cash also represents huge opportunity costs.$JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF (JEPI.US)$The urge to find alternative investment choices to the S&P 500 index comes not only from the index's excessive rise, but also from an unreadable background of economic and monetary policies.

Although indices such as the S&P 500 and

have continued to rise, allowing buy-and-hold investors to make a lot of money, it remains a cause for concern for many analysts. They note that in a market, Nvidia alone has brought more than 30% increase to the index, which is precarious. In the last two trading days of the week, the stock price of the AI chip maker fell by about 7% on higher-than-average volume. After briefly being dubbed the "largest company in the world by market cap," stock prices fell.

Due to the general uncertainty, investors continue to invest in effective assets - technology stocks. According to a survey by Bank of America, 41% of fund managers expect large-cap growth stocks to continue to boost the stock market.

Due to deep-rooted muscle memory formed in the past decade, these fund managers have sufficient reasons to invest in high-momentum companies with strong revenue growth. However, along the way, complex trades favored by the Wall Street crowd have failed to leave a deep impression on many traders who value safety and diversified investments.

"For many investors, the concept of 'defense' has changed," said Kevin Gordon, Senior Investment Strategist at Charles Schwab. "In this unique cycle, when investors start to feel unsettled, their instinctive reaction is to flock to the large-cap growth sector - especially the technology sector."

Edited by Jeffrey