The world of investing is incredibly tricky. It is quite easy to get lost looking up futures, options, and other alternative investments.
However, as a beginner, you should stick to the basics. You should have two goals when investing as a beginner:
Not to lose my money.
Learn as much about investing as possible.
To achieve this, it is best if you only invest in stocks with low volatility and large caps. On top of that, it is best to have some sort of diversification. Whether you achieve that with stocks or funds is up to you.
Make sure to avoid high-risk, high-return assets such as penny stocks. You may be tempted by the returns some of these stocks have had, but hindsight is always 20/20. Chances are that you will almost always lose money when investing in these assets.