generally speaking, equity market is very risky and of course with large return. It's not unusally to have some stocks surges to 3-4 times their original price (quite a few china names up more than 100% in last 12 months in SGX). I personally think based on the risk level, financial products can be order in this way: derivative (commodity and financial instrument) > equity > real assets > bonds.
unit trust could be a better choice to benefit from stock though it bears different risk (mainly management risk) and additional cost. You don't have to watch stocks everyday. Another good thing is some good units are doing really well.
it's interesting that a company's risk could vary a lot. some company could be riskier than oil derivative while some could be stabler than us Treasury bonds. the risk world is just too amazing.
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