Different people have different ideas of what an “index fund” means. Personally, I don’t consider it an index fund or a benchmark unless there’s a definition of

Different people have different ideas of what an “index fund” means. Personally, I don’t consider it an index fund or a benchmark unless there’s a definition of what the fund tracks ( https://web.stanford.edu/~wfsharpe/art/active/active.htm https://web.stanford.edu/~wfsharpe/art/active/active.htm ). And when there is, and I want to invest in that market, I expect to do better by paying a little money to accept the average return for that market than by paying more to try to get a better-than-average return (because to come out ahead, it has to be better by at least enough to pay for the higher fees). But you’re definitely right that “average return for the market” may not be positive.