Investing - Theory, News & General • Re: Individual Stock Confession

This is a great reminder that with my "success" with stock picking, it's best to stick with index funds:

It's also relevant to note the difference between 1-3 single stocks that you rolled the dice on, and then managing a portfolio of 20-30 stocks as a manager. I wouldn't do either, but the former is speculating and the latter is something thousands of guys with unlimited resources to analyze on Wall st. do vs. individuals with a subscription to Morningstar or whatever. I haven't really met anyone with 20-30 companies (i.e. managed an entire portfolio) who are 70 years old and have been doing this since they were 30 and beaten their benchmark(s), and forget the thousands of hours over the decades you've spent doing it. Met plenty who are up big time with some flyers on the usual tech companies over the past 1-2 decades (and good for them) but that game (speculating) is not for me. Most can accomplish their goals with 5-7% of real returns over their lives depending on their AA. It's been a pretty successful recipe for those, doesn't mean it will continue, but it's been good.

Statistics: Posted by deltaneutral83 — Fri Sep 18, 2026 9:58 am