401(k)s are fundamentally about the tax treatment of a certain class of employer-affiliated individual retirement accounts. There's a reasonable range of securi

401(k)s are fundamentally about the tax treatment of a certain class of employer-affiliated individual retirement accounts. There's a reasonable range of securities that can be held within a 401(k) account (often at least partially at the account holder's discretion) and some of those securities are considerably more risky than others.