An index fund typically performs much better over any meaningful timeframe because it has much lower fees. But that's not the point here. The big money in inve

An index fund typically performs much better over any meaningful timeframe because it has much lower fees. But that's not the point here. The big money in investing isn't in beating the market, but charging fees, so fund managers only need to convince people to give them their money, they don't actually have to deliver results, provided they're working within the fund's stated goals.