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There's nothing wrong with gambling, as long as you realize that that's what you're doing. After all, life is a gamble. When it comes to gambling with your money, what you want to do is get the best odds you can get.

When you buy stocks on your own, you are creating your own personal stock portfolio. You're out there gambling with your own money all by yourself.

But when you buy mutual funds, you are buying a share in a professional portfolio manager's stock portfolio. You and your money are backing a professional gambler.

That translates into more security and protection, explains Ron Roberts, an investment executive with Advest, Inc., in Tamarac, Fla.

When you buy stock in a company and that company does well, you make money. If it doesn't do well, you lose money. But by buying into a mutual fund you're buying into a group of stocks, Roberts explains. "Some mutual funds may have 30 different stocks. Some might have 500. What that does is give you some diversification and protection. When one of the stocks in the fund goes down, it's only a percentage of the total holdings. You can still see a net gain."

"To my mind, when you buy individual stocks you are taking a very big risk. No one can tell you for certain if it is going up or down."

The stock market is many things, but logical is not one of them. No one can predict with 100 per cent accuracy what will send prices up or down for any individual stock, group of stocks, or the market as a whole.

That's why having a professional portfolio manager - or gambler - on your side is so important.

With a mutual fund, Roberts adds, "you get the benefits of professional management. The people who run these funds do nothing all day but analyze the markets and various sectors of the markets. They also have access to the executives in companies - the chairmen of the boards, the chief financial officers. These are the people who would not take a phone call from you or me but who will from the manager of a mutual fund that can invest millions of dollars. As a result, you have people working for you who have the benefit of up-to-date information and who have done the exhaustive research that most individuals are not capable of doing."

Another advantage of going with a mutual fund is "economy of scale. When a fund buys a stock it is paying just pennies per share in commission. An individual will pay more, especially if they are using a full-service broker."

Roberts says that there are many good stockbrokers, but adds that "their main job is not analyzing, it is marketing, and finding new clients. A mutual fund analyst spends all his or her time analyzing."

While finding the right mutual fund takes the worry out of picking what stocks to buy, you still have to pick which mutual fund - or funds - to go with.

Some invest in a little bit of everything: technology stocks, service companies, utilities, manufacturing, whatever. Others are what are referred to as "sector" funds because they deal only in certain sectors of the economy. For example, there are funds that deal only with technology. Some deal only with the health industry. Some specialize in low risk stocks while others tend more toward riskier purchases and some try to keep an even balance of the two. Some invest only in U.S. companies, some do only foreign companies and some will invest anywhere in the world that they think there is a good chance of making money.

So when it comes time to pick a mutual fund, decide what sort of gambling you want to do. Then look at a fund's record. Has it made money or lost money? How much? And over what period of time? Has it made 6 percent over the last year? Has it made 12? How about 15 or 20?

Since picking a mutual fund can be almost as intimidating as picking a stock, you might want to work through a stockbroker. Brokers know what the different funds are and what they are investing in. They can also explain the differences and help you interpret their performance and what they will cost.

Every fund has "ongoing expenses." They can range from less than one percent to as much as three percent or more of your investment on an annual basis. This is used for salaries, operating costs and expenses. Roberts says that the percentage you pay for "operating costs" will often vary depending upon the type of "load" you go for - a front load or a back load.

A "front load," which is often called an "A" share, means that you are paying a commission when you buy in. A "back load," or "C" share, means you are paying it when you sell out. There are also "B" shares which have no front load, and the back load is reduced or dropped if you hold on to them long enough - often after six or seven years. As a rule, "A" shares usually have the lowest ongoing expenses.

If you plan on being in a mutual fund for the long haul, buying "A" shares is quite often the best deal. Look at it this way. Would you rather pay commission on the $10,000 you pay into it or on the $20,000 you hope to get out of it?

But every fund is different, and not all of them offer different types of shares. A broker can explain how any one fund operates.

Another reason you should spend extra time in picking a mutual fund is that you should stay with them for awhile. Roberts says that "you generally want to hold on to a fund investment for three to five years, or longer. It's a long-term investment."

After all, the main difference between an amateur and a professional is that a professional usually has a better record. Anyone can get lucky from time to time, but the professionals are professionals because they themselves perform better more consistently over the long haul.