You probably have heard the term “a stock pickers market” at some point in your investing career or if you are just starting, you will at some point.  It is especially true in volatile markets like we have in 2022 and definitely had in 2021. In 2021, according to the SPIVA report, it was a great year for growth stocks.  The S&P 500 Growth Index was up 33% but 98% of all growth managers failed to outperform that benchmark.  Take it out “long term” and 90% of all domestic equity funds underperformed the S&P Composite 1500 Index over the past 20 years.  As a result of these facts, mutual fund managers like to counter with a claim that on a risk-adjusted basis they will outperform.  Once again, this is simply not true.  According to the SPIVA report, 95% of these same managers underperformed their benchmark on a risk-adjusted basis over the same 20-year period – so much for that claim.