[55555]

No. It beats active traders most of the time. Many active traders vastly outperform it -- by over 2X before compounding -- over 20+ year periods, and not by luck. julian robertson, warren buffet, and ~100 of their proteges, as examples. Basically anytime a new understanding of markets which introduces the potential for profit is developed, there's a period of at least a decade or two when small funds can generate extremely outsized returns before it's arbitraged away. Just like in business.

Recommended reading: More Money Than God.

[jacobsenscott]

If you beat the market it is by luck. If there was a system everyone would use it, and then that would be the market.

[55555]

Your belief is the basic reddit tier intelligent belief: Bogglehead, Vanguard, blahblah. I used to believe what you believed too.

Please reread your comment and realize that it also disproves the ability to make money in business (ie non financial markets) consistently other than thru luck and that the efficient market theory is a hypothetical never-reached endstate.