As an aside, of course it is very difficult for managers, on average, to beat the average performance of representative stocks which they are buying a subset of.


You don't need decades of research, and heated debate, to demonstrate how it is also impossible for more than half of people to enjoy "above-average intelligence" - even if they believe they do.


In fact, the more tightly managers hug the benchmark - by intention - the proportionally larger effect the higher costs of active management vs. indexing will push more than half of active managers below indexing.


But if one day I rub my eyes and realize the childish mathematical reality that most people will have below-average incomes (skewness), am I going to put everything I have in t-notes and go on welfare?


The amusing thing about the stock market as compared to, for instance, brain surgery, is that you don't find a lot of investors who also fancy themselves as knowing the first thing about brain surgery.


El-Roi