Statistically, you can’t beat the stock market indexes. Why do you try

How common is it to beat the market?

His firm’s research finds that buying the outgoing stock in discretionary deletions from the S&P 500 at the closing price on the day it’s removed from the index has beaten the market by an average of nearly 20% over the following 12 months. That is supposed to be impossible.

Why is it so difficult to consistently beat the market?

Why is it so hard to beat the market? A prime reason is that the skewed pattern of market returns stacks the odds against investors. Typically, a few high-performing stocks pull the average up, while the majority of stocks under-perform.