Can I diversify with a few stocks or do I need a mutual fund?

Owning one bank, one railway, one telecom and a few other blue chips feels diversified, but is a handful of solid names really enough, or does a low-cost fund do the job better? This piece tackles that question for an investor with a 15-to-20-year horizon who's weighing a small basket of individual stocks against no-load, low-fee funds. The discussion gets at what diversification actually requires, how concentrated a few-stock portfolio really is once you look under the hood, and the trade-offs between control and cost on one side and broad, hands-off exposure on the other. It also touches on the behavioural side, since a thin portfolio can be harder to hold through rough patches. For a long-term investor trying to decide how hands-on to be, it's a clear-eyed look at what you give up either way.