The way that you manipulate this is by adjusting your risk profile. If you want potentially higher returns, you accept more risk. If you want predictability, yo

The way that you manipulate this is by adjusting your risk profile. If you want potentially higher returns, you accept more risk. If you want predictability, you accept lower returns. Self-selecting a bunch of stocks increases your risk profile compared to using an index fund of the whole stock market, but you incur significantly more trading costs as a result. If you want to increase your possible returns at greater risks, there are cheaper ways of doing it.