How is risk related to the yield?
You certainly want to get high yield but there are a few nuances to understand. First, the average yield in the U.S. stock market is 10-15% in currency. At first glance it seems low, but it's actually more than what traditional financial instruments offer you. Secondly, different instruments give different yield: shares - up to 30%, ETFs - up to 15%, bonds - up to 5%, and possible yield on IPOs - up to 500%.
Thirdly (and this is the most important point), yield is directly related to risk. That is, having invested $100 in shares, you can get up to $30 annual profit, but also up to $30 loss, and you have to be ready for that.
Here, it makes sense to think about the investment strategy - before taking the plunge into the stock market, it is good to understand what goal you pursue, how soon you are ready to achieve it, and what risks you are willing to take.
The first step is to determine your investment goal. You need to set the short-term, medium-term and long-term goals, specify their time frame and objective evaluation. A short-term goal can be a vacation next year, and a medium-term goal can be a down payment to buy an apartment in three years.
Once you have determined your goal, you can move on to risks. Talk to yourself rationally about what risk you're willing to take. Can you withstand a 20% drawdown? Or are you more comfortable risking within 10%? Or maybe you are for even more?
Remember, the risk always corresponds to a possible profit. That is, if you want to earn more than 20%, but you cannot afford to lose 20%, you should reconsider your plans. If you are tolerant to 5-10% risk – you’d better choose a conservative portfolio, 15-20% - a balanced portfolio may be selected, more than 20% - an aggressive risk portfolio.
Don't engage with the risky instruments if you can't survive the transformation of risk into reality. Never engage with any instruments using your last savings. And never underestimate a stable average yield.