<prompt> Human: Im thinking about investing some money in the stock market. Something like a thousand dollars or a tad more. Ive got some good knowledge of the industry but no experience experience with picking stocks and making trades. Ultimately, Im wanting to determine if its worth my effort to research and create my own portfolio or if Im better off just investing in an indexed fund like the sp 500. In other words, how difficult is it to outperform these indexes? What does everything think? What are your experiences with trying to beat the market?Thanks,LodraAssistant: In other words, how difficult is it to outperform these indexes? What does everything think?If it was not difficult to consistently do, then why wouldnt everyone already be doing so?Human: Personally, I think its just a matter of time for the right type of person. I.e. some people just need to devote x amount of time researching and analyzing companies and market data before being able to reliably beat the market. Maybe this is too strong of an assumption but its what I think. Regardless, Im trying to figure out the value of x.Feel free to comment if you think Im crazy on this one :  <response>: It is not that you are crazy, just that you place too much value in things you term beliefs which have no basis in reality. I have answered quite a few posts on this sub from people who have asked these same sorts of questions and who reply with the same type of response - they simply know there is a better, quicker way to make money and they ask us what that magic formula is. There is no magic formula. Good personal finance is boring personal finance. It is an unsexy answer, but it is grounded in research and numbers, not fantasy and hope.There has been much research done on managed funds - these have managers who devote all of their working time to picking just the right stocks to try and beat market returns - and the result is that most managed funds underperform their benchmark and it would, therefore, be better to invest in index funds. Some managed funds beat the market in any given year, and some manage to do it for a few years, but all of these funds with their managers all devoted to the study of stock picking do not have consistent market beating returns.This is an ideal time to discover, and not just for your finances sake, that just because you want to believe something to be true or somehow know it in your heart of hearts does not make it true. 