1 - So far so good, but it hasn't been many years. In a bull market, I'm also (in addition to some other winners) partly 'betting' (as per the conversations above) on some value stocks that underperformed during this time. One of them is based on geopolitical issues in one particular country that I'm expecting to be resolved based on the best knowledge I have while following the politics of this particular country and the industry of the company in question (and the company's legal disputes with the government). Another is a promising technology that was recently trialed successfully commercially. There are a few others like this. My educated guess is that even should the broader index go down when the bull market eventually subsides, these will picks still benefit and climb due to the underlying fundamentals. They're hedges along with a basket of other picks, some of which are very conservative (and include Vanguard funds). In the worst case, I don't think my picks will underperform a bear market.

2 - that's an extreme perspective, since there's value in learning that doesn't have an hourly cost. The TOC of my time may or may not be higher than what a fund manager would cost (or the index fund approach being discussed). Then again, monitoring the portfolio 3-4 times a day for a couple of minutes isn't that bad. Initially finding the stocks of interest and doing some basic research does take time.

[edit: grammar]