Question: Which type of investment below is the best?
Total Stock Market Index Fund
International Index Fund
Small-Cap Index Fund
Answer:
Both Total stock market index funds and international index funds are good investments and they are best because they are less risky and more profitable than Small-Cap index funds.
Be careful before investing in any small caps. Trading in Small and penny stocks might be highly riskier. Most of these stocks gain only because of insider trading & rumours.
These are 3 completely different investments for different purposes. The first is of course the broadest--investing in an index of all different kinds of stock. The second is just as it sounds-- a non US investment; the 3rd is in an index of only small companies-- higher in risk than the first.
Most people try to diversify their investments, and thus might invest in all 3 of these as well as others. If you have to pick just one based on risk, I'd say the total stock market index fund is the most diversified and least risky.