re: Have 1,000 and want to put it in mutual fund

Why would you put 1,000 into a mutual fund, especially if you're willing to take on a large amount of risk. Even if you see some massive return for a mutual fund (i.e. 20% or so) this year, that's still only 200 bucks. You can sort through your house and find things to list on ebay and make 200 bucks quicker than that.

Put 1,000 into the lowest risk but highest potential reward micro-cap play you can find. I recommend Chinese growth stocks (listed on U.S. exchanges), preferably in stocks whose business plan has anything at all to do with the Chinese automobile industry.