> “ In general, anyone with a full time job that thinks they can out-compete full time traders that specialize in the exact instrument that you are trying to tr

> “ In general, anyone with a full time job that thinks they can out-compete full time traders that specialize in the exact instrument that you are trying to trade will have a very expensive lesson some day.” I hear this a lot and it’s definitely something I would expect to be true. But I’ve been repeatedly surprised that it’s not. I’ve made a lot investing on the side (usually just stock, sometimes calls - recently for peloton in January, stock for tesla in 2012 which I sold early last year before the crazy recent rise, stock for Apple, Amazon, Nvidia, Facebook, AMD). Am I stupid, lucky or both? Yes longest bull run in history, but investing in large tech companies you think are stable long term with good CEOs when you know the field (Apple, Amazon) seems pretty easy. When you read a lot of comments from traders on the east coast they seem like they misunderstand the companies, or are not focused on long term strategic moves. I’m mostly positioned in total market index funds with a couple large positions in companies I think will continue to outperform long term, but it doesn’t seem that hard to do better than traders. Plus the index funds contain a lot of companies I would never personally invest in if they weren’t in the fund, still good to hedge against my own (likely) arrogance.