do you believe you can beat index funds?

do you believe you can beat index funds?


whatever type of stocks you trade, do you believe that as a customer you can beat the index funds of that category in the long term?


for example, if you typically have a portfolio of 20 stocks, all big nasdaq stocks...do you really think this portfolio, after your trading transactions, value of time (explained below), expenses, etc., over 5/10 years, will beat the Nasdaq 100 Index, which you can simply buy by purchasing QQQ and sitting on it for the same length of time?


I am not here to criticize anyone, just asking some of the posters here (Zee, Haley, Kim Lee, elroy, paul, etc.) if you believe you are winning by trading as a customer.


Value of time (my definition) : if you can make more money doing something else with the time you spend watching, analysing stocks, then this is an economic negative....however, one must factor in the fun factor of trading, watching, sweating, analysing stocks ... this is a positive for a lot of people....so factor this in...i know some who are perfectly happy knowing they are losing 1% against the market averages when they trade actively, because it is fun for them, and that's perfectly fine, becuase the fun part of it is worth the 1% differential in the long run.