Advice from Gerald Minack, from the Inside

Gerard Minack, the international analyst from  Morgan Stanley, retired last year. He was very cynical about the investment world and felt the professional investor was in business only because the amateur insisted on competing with him. His general advise was:

No amateur competes well with a professional, be it tennis, golf or investing.

That said, no professional will beat the market consistently.

That inconsistency plus costs results in the consistent observation that the vast majority of professionally managed funds under-perform the basic benchmarks of their class.

The  market can not be timed.

Individual stocks are not quantifiable and are terrible investment choices;

Funds investing in particular asset classes always underperform the general group and the exceptions that outperform do not do it consistently; 

The conclusion: Invest in broad market index funds with low cost. Only. Ever.