I got better than anything else I could have invested in. That's what matters to me.

You did that over a period that was a decidedly bull market, though. Presumably sokoloff's question was intended to point out that very similar strategies (trying to pick "winners") is likely to underperform the market in bear conditions, sometimes very badly.

I knew a lot of people who thought they were hot stuff day traders back in 1998 too. Spoiler: they weren't.

I went in in August 2007, when the DOW was at 14700 or so. I watched my portfolio dip from $27K to $18K. Everyone I knew was going cash. I didn't. I trimmed the sails, turned into the wind, and learned. There's no better learning that reading everything you can about the market when the market is doing back-to-back triple-digit drops in the 8000's, with your money in the game. I sold some pigs, bought some as they were going down. The best pickings were on the floor, BK at the corner, and people had written them off. I got lucky that I was buying when everyone was scared, but I didn't buy because the stock was low, I bought because I knew the companies had customers, long term contracts, good manufacturing know-how, good management, and made products their customers wanted. At that point, I reinvested another $25K in securities, from when the DOW was around 7500, and gold was shooting up, to about 10,000. After that, it was all growth, reinvestment of dividends, etc. I pulled $10K out in December 2012 (down payment on car), and had $61K in the portfolio after. This week, not really doing anything, it's at $99K. Yes, it's a wave, but like in surfing, you gotta be in the water to catch it. I have holdings in about 60 companies. My last trade was selling $1600 of Honda stock and buying $500 of Fedex and $600 of Toro, both adding to existing positions.