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Even with all the best fundamentals some stocks still drop.. It makes no sense analytically, and therefore logic cannot always predict movement. There is some inherent randomness, algorithmic trading, insider knowledge, or other outside factors that are sometimes beyond one man's analysis. So why not just diversity and eliminate all the b.s. and accept the overall movement of the market without the fees. i.e. indexing.
The reason theses gains and drops don't make sense analytically is because the people looking at them are looking at them from a point of view that is too analytical with too many assumptions such as every investor being rational. It is scary for the average person to think that they can make all the right moves and still be wrong.
Over the long term the intrinsic value of a security will reign true however in the heat of the moment, price is really a sentiment of the bidders and sellers and this is influenced by the emotions of the market which is more difficult to quantify (for example parabolic moves).
There is an emerging field in finance called behavioural finance which can explain a lot of what is going on. It is a field that is currently highly in demand with very little peer reviewed studies and looks at the biases of people when they make trading/investment decisions.
The randomness is really the hysteria of the masses. One cannot consistently predict the behaviour of individuals however the markets are a consensus of the mob and the mob is a lot more predictable.
Insider trading is an easy scapegoat because it takes blame off the individual investor/trader however initial price action is one of the biggest tells. If a stock has been inactive/channeling for a long time and suddenly gains in volume/price (with no news) the only thing that could be happening (all else equal) is that insiders (executives, CEOs, etc) know something and are in the process of accumulating it expecting prices to increase. This is a tell and can be acted upon by the trader/investor with experience.
Why not eliminate the BS? This is the whole point of this thread. It really comes down to risk tolerance and effort you are willing to expend. Are you willing to risk capital on your analysis. Are you willing to do your own research and come to your own conclusions and then bet on them. Most people are not and this is why most people are better off putting their money into an index. What OP is saying is that with a little bit of work they can do better than the index.
If you have a low risk tolerance and want something safe without the headaches (no thought input) then yes indexes are the way to go.
If you want to take on more risks for the possibility of making higher returns than the index then you will need to put in more though and work into the process.
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If it were so damn easy to beat the market year after year, there would be that guy promising 30% returns every year. Oh wait that does exist, I think his name is bernie madoff. Heard he'll get you great returns..
There are guys who promise high returns, the only thing is they don't take any person who invests with them. The difference is that Bernie Madoff will take anyones money however these high return guys will take money from only people they know and who have a big enough account.