Difficult to beat the market average

Source: Economist magazine, as quoted in John Bogle's book

For the most part, fund managers have offered extremely poor value for money. Their records of outperformance are almost always followed by stretches of underperformance. Over long periods of time, hardly any fund managers have beaten the market average.

They encourage investors, rather than spread their risks wisely or seek the best match for their future liabilities, to put their money into the most modish assets going, often just when they become overvalued.

And all the while, they cahrge their clients big fees for the privilege of losing their money.

Lesson: invest in an indexed fund that promises a market return but with significantly lower fees.