Stock market investing is the best way to gain big money but it requires a lot of effort and a very active involvement in the stock market.
That said there are other ways to save you the hassle of investing directly yet stay invested in the stock market.
That method is the mutual fund route.
In mutual funds generally there is an asset management company which will float a fund for a specific purpose say for investing in only alternative energy stocks.
Now think of it as you investing the alternative energy stocks.
A large number of people will get units similar to stocks for the money they put in the fund.
There will be a fund manager who will be actively managing the money and picking the stocks.
This helps as the fund manager is backed a very knowledgeable team of analysts who will be doing research as to which are the best stocks to buy and which are the stocks to sell.
The fund companies make money as they charge the management fees and these fees are then are charged as the entry and the exit loads when you invest in the mutual funds.
Each mutual find company publishes the NAV of the fund and that is usually the price of the unit at which you can either sell or buy the units of the fund.
The best thing is that you are relieved of the responsibility of actively managing the stock portfolio and also then you can invest in sector specific funds.