Those "hedge funds can't beat index funds or the market" are marketing/PR messaging for index ETFs. Many, if not most, hedge funds are not trying to "beat the

Those "hedge funds can't beat index funds or the market" are marketing/PR messaging for index ETFs. Many, if not most, hedge funds are not trying to "beat the market". For some hedge funds, if they did beat the market, then they would be sued by investors for taking far too much risk. Investing has more goals than "make me the most money possible" but most naive investors don't understand this. That said, retail investors don't invest with hedge funds anyway, so most hedge funds don't really care about such misleading messaging.