Most money managers don't outperform the market, but some do, like myself. Your index fund recommendation is true for the overwhelming majority of people. However, there's a few people out there who can outperform the major indices as stock pickers. With the right temperament and fundamentals, it's actually quite easy to outperform the major indices. On another note, beware of the current ETF situation related to distorted values that I described in post #12 above.