But the last 5 years or so - with the ramp up in tech stocks, I know enough people who've done really well with indidividual stock picking.
In fact there was a paper out that said 10% of retail investors can consistently beat the market - it's a mixture of skill, discipline and luck.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2014/11/19/why-you-...
Did the paper say the same set of people consistently beat the market over long periods of time or did it say at any time about 10% of investors happen to beat the market?
Not sure which time period they studied
But I don't think the paper claims that they beat the market. What they are concluding is that you can classify investors as skilled and unskilled, with the skilled group able to achieve returns consistently. But whether those returns can beat the market, they say the evidence is limited.