Here at The Motley Fool, we're in favor of having you take as much control of your investments as you can. And to take control, you need flexibility to choose from as many stocks and mutual funds as possible. A rollover IRA allows you to do nearly anything you'd do with a normal brokerage account (aside from trades that require margin, such as short sales), and you get to do it tax-deferred, with no taxes to worry about until it's time to withdraw -- at which point your withdrawals are taxed as ordinary income.

self-directed brokerage IRA