What would be the best area to invest in for a short period of time of about 6-12 months?

Hello! I personally feel that you should look for long term investments instead of short term if you are not highly in need of money since it is more likely that these short term investments would carry high risks. You can look into trading in the stock market or also look into investing in debt mutual funds.

Perhaps you can look into day trading - but it is extremely difficult to consistently perform without experience in the stock market and strong financial fundamentals. Even if you don't do fundamental analysis you will be doing technical analysis, and you still need to understand chartist methods, indicators and chart signals.

I highly advise against thinking about just investing in the Short run, it involves huge amounts of speculation and if you're not at the top of your game I've seen friends who burned their entire savings of a few thousands playing with CDFs and Margins. Playing with Leverage is especially dangerous because you can lose more than you initially put in.

All in all, don't think about the Short term. Think Long term, at least allow yourself to have a well diverisfied portfolio that can protect your capital somewhat in downturns. I'm saying this of course in the guess that you are a beginner asking this question. If you still want to invest, perhaps Treasury Bills of 3 6 12 months maturity of emerging economies like India and Thailand is a good way to invest and get a rather high interest rate. However, you will still be exposed to currency exchange rate changes.