answer:When I was a broker, most customers did in fact, own solely funds. Some customers with high net worth or with higher risk tolerances would purchase individual securities they had a good feeling about, but these were typically minor positions. This is actually a wonderful strategy if you know what you are doing and are willing to put in some maintenance. There were a lot of stories of little old ladies who were secretly millionaires who had repeatedly been writing covered calls against blue chip stocks and letting them expire, then reinvesting the premiums. But most people do not understand how to do that. The biggest mistake I notice people making is investing in multiple funds with different names and thinking they are diversified. You actually have to look at the prospectus and validate that the funds aren’t investing in the same damn companies.