I do not recommend online investing unless you are a professional and experienced at it. There have been too many instances of multiple order entries and incomplete executions that have led to potentially devastating financial problems for online traders. You can accidentally hit the wrong key 16 times, and you can have a price move in the market before the error is detected for which the online trader is liable. However, if you are experienced and confident in your own abilities, then online trading can provide a low cost vehicle for an active trader doing their own research. The issue is less online trading than how frequently you intend to trade.
Online trading has the dangers inherent to lead to impulse over trading.
It's when a fund is deliberately set up to hedge against the risk, in other words, to balance the risk in a marketplace. In practice, what a hedge fund is is a pooling of money usually by very large investors for the purposes of leveraging and concentrating their investments under the guidance of a single manager or team of managers who are paid a percentage of the annual gain versus a standard management fee. The leverage used by a hedge fund can be many many times the actual asset base that is held by the hedge fund. Take the time to do the research. Standard rule of investing is to investigate before you invest.