We also have the same wishful thinking about investments we make directly, hoping to find the next Dell, Cisco, or EMC so that one skillfully selected stock will rocket us to wealth, a path with much more style than pulling a winning lottery ticket. In fact, very few investors have track records that survive close examination. Most lose from day one. Those who stand out are routinely buried in money or so wildly enriched that they retire. Still others are later revealed to be the proverbial flash in the pan.
Index investing does better.
Indexing costs much less. Traditionally managed money, whether in mutual funds or individual accounts, suffers from expenses that sap the long-term return. Basically, the professional money manager finds himself swimming against a rip tide of expenses that make it virtually impossible to beat an index of comparable securities. Bernstein says that there are four major expenses in managing a portfolio. Then there is the less visible cost of brokerage commissions.