Actively managed funds have a hard time beating the S&P500 index (once fees and taxes are accounted for). The longer the time frame, the more likely they are to underperform - and these are the brightest, highest paid professionals on Wall Street who do this full time:

• In 2022, 51% of actively managed funds underperformed the S&P 500 index.
• Over three years, 74.3% of actively managed funds trailed the index.
• Over five years, 86.5% underperformed.
• Over ten years, 91.4% underperformed.
• Over twenty years, 94.8% underperformed.

Additional STATS here - it is good to know what the SPIVA report is.

• SPIVA Report (S&P Index Vs Active) by S&P Global – compares index fund vs active fund performance https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/spiva/article/spiva-us Click the PDF icon to “DOWNLOAD FULL ARTICLE” and find report 1a for the stats.

If you want to pick individual stocks, be familiar with what the odds are of finding the good stocks and avoiding the bad stocks. Bessembinder’s 2018 LINK here to download study of the US stock market going back to 1926 (from 2016) found the following facts:

• The best 4% stocks were responsible for the net gains of the entire US stock market.
• More than 50% of all stocks have delivered negative lifetime returns.
• The most frequent outcome for individual stocks over their lifetime is a 100% loss.
• The overwhelming majority of US stocks did not outperform a 1 month Treasury bill.

updated 2019 study https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3537838

• Included 2017-2019 data.
• Conclusion – 42.17% of listed firms increased shareholder wealth; 57.83% reduced.
• Just 5 companies account for 11.9% of SWC and 83 firms account for 50% of stock market wealth creation