I would personally recommend stocks.
The problem with EFTs is they are not very transparent. You have to trust that the sponser is doing what he says he is doing, rather than playing with derivatives in the back room. A sophisticated financial institution might try to run an EFT without actually purchasing the underlying securities, or try to make money by trading against the EFT.
A index mutual fund is probably best for the investor who knows nothing, but they are not as neutral as they are cracked up to be. The weighting of the stocks are based on market cap. This means that if millions of investors think Facebook is worth 200 times earnings, the index fund will contain a lot more shares of Facebook relative to earnings than it would of stock that investors shun, such as Intel.
I am more inclined to buy Intel at 9 times trailing earnings and a 4.2% dividends, and stay away from Facebook.
Thanks,....thinking about doing something....