r/stocks
I can't beat the market. I won't ever beat the market. After years I realize that now. It's VOO for me.
After years of failing to beat the S&P 500, the author gives up active trading and commits to buying and holding VOO.
- Passive index investing is a reliable long-term strategy as time in the market beats timing the market.
- Low-cost index funds provide a simple and effective way to build wealth without the stress of active trading.
I spent years trying to outperform the S&P. I read dozens of books, studied successful traders. Learned strategies and risk management. Now I realize I simply can't pull it off. After all my efforts I have still underperformed "buy and hold."
Time in the market beats timing the market. That's obvious now. I'm going to stop trying to be "smart" and just do the simple thing. I'm buying a low cost index fund and investing from now on.
That also means I'll be stuck working until retirement. I hoped to retire early, but that's just not in the cards for me. That's ok. At least I'll finally have something when it comes time to retire, instead of being broke my whole life.
If you want to read my failed efforts to actually beat the market, I documented it all on r/4kto1m. YEARS of trades, trading guides, updates, all posted there. After that I tried to start over. I created another sub called r/RothVsSpy where I tried to open a new Roth IRA and beat the market all over again. This has lasted less than 2 months and you can see for yourself what happened. I started these thinking I could outperform SPY. After 5 long years of attempts it is finally clear it can't be done.
Learn from my mistakes. Please.