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The buzz word in the investing world is now - GOLD. Nowadays, there are many ways to invest in gold, other than buying physical gold and they are Gold ETFs and Gold Funds. There is a lot of confusion among retail investors about understanding and investing these products and we are quite sure this article would clarify things better.

To make things clear, both Gold ETFs and Gold Funds are mutual fund products — only the mode of purchase differs. The Gold Funds are fund of funds, which invest in their own fund house ETFs, for e.g., HDFC Gold Fund invests in HDFC Gold ETF.

Similar funds have been launched by Reliance mutual fund, Quantum mutual fund and Kotak mutual fund. Investors can get details of these funds from their respective websites.

Gold ETFs:

• ETFs are exchange traded funds launched by leading mutual funds which are traded in stock exchanges like Nse and Bse.
• You need a Dmat account and a trading account with your stock broker, to buy and sell these ETFs.
• Charges involved are brokerage charges and Dmat charges.
• They can be bought and sold over the exchange through a broker on a daily basis during trading hours. Gold ETFs provide an opportunity to benefit from changes in price movements of gold as the prices of gold ETF reflect the value of the underlying gold on real time basis.
• SIP is not possible, since it involves manual purchase by the investor every month.

Gold Funds:

• Gold Funds are fund of funds launched by mutual funds, which can be bought and sold through mutual fund agents or through online websites offered by the fund houses.
• You don't need a Dmat account or trading account.
• Charges involved - no entry load, but exit load of about 1 - 2%, if sold before one year from the date of purchase.
• Can be bought and sold on any working day, but the NAV of the fund at which the fund sells the units is based on the closing NAV calculated based on price of the gold on the previous day.
• SIP can be done, which is a good positive thing, since investing a fixed sum of money every month ensures you better average cost of purchase.

To sum it up, investing in Gold Funds are for those investors who want to invest in a simple and systematic method, involving lower costs. Whereas ETFs are for those active investors and traders, involving high costs and continuous monitoring of buying and selling.

With the emergence of smart phones, mobile applications have completely transformed how we live our lives. Applications make activities that we were once only able to perform in a stationary environment into something that we can do anywhere, anytime. Of the millions of activities, like banking, shopping, and more, that have now been made mobile, even stock trading is now made that much easier thanks to mobile apps. Here are some of the best ones out there:

1.Bloomberg
Bloomberg, the media and financial services behemoth, has always been a one-stop shop for information about the markets. Now, Bloomberg is available on a nifty app, so that you can have real-time stock information, market news, and more right in the palm of your hand.

2.E*Trade Mobile Pro
If you use E*Trade to buy stocks, then its mobile app is especially helpful, since you can use it to buy and sell stocks, transfer money from any financial institution, and monitor the markets with comprehensive charts and live stock quotes.

3.Virtual Stock Market Lite
Virtual Stock Market Lite is a great app especially if you are relatively new to the markets. When you download and begin using this particular app, you are given $100,000 in virtual cash to invest as you please. The app uses real stock prices and real markets, so using this app is wonderfully accurate, not to mention, fun, way to practice trading!

4.Stock Twits
Stock Twits has all the benefits of apps like Bloomberg in terms of information and news about markets. The one aspect of Stock Twits that makes it unique, however, is that it serves also as a social network for traders. You can follow traders who invest the same way you do, discuss different strategies, and generally become part of an entire community of like-minded investors.

Trading and investing has never been a walk in the park. It takes time and energy, business savvy, and of course, a little bit of luck. Using some of these apps, however, will enable you to access an enormous amount of data and expertise so that you can make the best investment decisions, any time and any place.

Author Bio:
This is a guest post by Nadia Jones who blogs at accredited online colleges about education, college, student, teacher, money saving, movie related topics. You can reach her at nadia.jones5 at gmail.com.