How long did it take you?

[rranjan]

You can't control what the market does, but you can control how much alpha you add/subtract.

 

Or you could ignore the market, ignore the alpha and simply try to get a good rate of return over a period which takes you to your financial Independence without taking a risk of being wiped out. Easier said than done but that's how I will set my goals.  I will be measuring this index thingy after the fact to judge if I should even continue doing it myself but won't really take it as my goal.

 

I guess it's different thought process for different folks.

[Ham Hockers]

In the long run, one can and SHOULD set a goal of beating the market, otherwise why bother? Just go passive and buy an index. And it shouldn't be hard if you're looking at the S&P 500. If you can't do that than don't invest. You cant beat some sort of an average of the most looked at stocks on the planet? You're not a good investor. Easy. I know quite a few people who are lousy investors in the stock markets but are fantastic business man who made their fortune selling stuff, so it's all good.

 

Oh, and unfortunately, I don't think I'm a good investor.

 

The fact is, most people, even those of us on this site who are reasonably knowledgeable and smart, will not beat the index over any long period of time, and certainly not consistently. That some people think it's easy sort of horrifies me.

 

My sense is most non-professionals here realize this, but are happy to invest on their own because it's a) fun and b) isn't so costly (in terms of underperformance) that it will be disastrous to their lives. For the pros, I would say some are above average, and most are just trying to make a living, like everyone else.

 

I strongly disagree.

 

My goal and the goal of most long term investors is to beat the market overall, not necessarily beat it consistently (the word you used)

 

Firstly, when I think of someone beating the S&P 500 I think of a graph showing performance starting say at age 28, when that person reaches 50 the graph will show results pulling away from S&P 500. That is NOT to say that the person beats the S&P 500 the majority of the years, he can lag the S&P500 say 25/40 years yet still pull away.

 

The goal is to retire or die with the most money!

 

If there are a huge set of people trying to beat the market then some are able to beat it using my definition above, who are those people, they are in the minority but they exist somewhere.  When you say it is almost impossible to beat it, you are probably thinking of the same arguements are the efficient market people. Warren Buffett debunked that.

 

I think that the majority of people in this forum know they can do it, but they can't be bothered bothering doing what is required long term so they instead cut some corners, and thus may wind up failing.

 

 

 

I think you're reading my post incorrectly.

 

I never said nobody can beat the market. I said I thought most will not. I also never said it is near impossible to beat the market.

 

I never said the goal of long term investors is to beat the market consistently. I only emphasized that I thought that was even harder than beating the market over a long period of time, which I think you agree with.

 

Overall I was responding to the idea that it's easy to beat the market. I think it's tough.