> To illustrate the difference, consider what would happen if the Warren Buffetts and David Teppers of the American capital markets put all their money into ETF

> To illustrate the difference, consider what would happen if the Warren Buffetts and David Teppers of the American capital markets put all their money into ETFs. You'd have no price discovery. Someone needs to be wiling to do their own research, reach conclusions with conviction, and trust in those conclusions through short- and medium-term wobbles. There are a lot of different ETFs, some much more broad than others. You don't need to buy the whole market. If you think energy is cheap you can buy an ETF of energy companies (say XLE) which is a useful way to diversify if you're not able to buy reasonable quantities of multiple names.