02-05-2017, 08:01 AM
(02-03-2017, 11:56 AM)tRoadmap2Retire Wrote: Theres a lot of research that suggests trying to stock pick and beating the market results mostly in losses. There are millions of extremely smart professional investors who have better resources than any single retail investor can ever own
While that statement is true, you forget that there is one very very simple difference between us and those people. One small difference that pretty much disregards the argument altogether.
We are interested in making a stable profit over the course of years and decades. All of the pro's who work for banks or investment companies need to provide quarterly or even monthly results. Some private finance houses might be different, but the large majority very much relies on selling their product with "look how well it's done in the past 3, 6 or 12 months". Their job and/or bonus does not depend on what happens in 2037. When they buy a stock at a certain price to be included in the fund they manage, they buy it with the thought that with this stock the next monthly or quarterly report the fund will provide to it's owners will have a + sign before the profit number.
It's a whole different ball game, essentially you are comparing someone who runs a marathon to someone who specializes in 100m sprint. Both can be very good at getting the results they want, but they will never really be competing against each other.