The index fund approach doesn't suggest that index funds will always do really well, it suggest that it will always do better over a long period of time than individually-selected stock. Any conditions that cause index funds to do poorly seems to also cause most individual stocks to do poorly. Index funds are a risk-mitigation strategy.
Of course it is possible after the fact to find collections of individual stocks that have outperformed the index fund. Trillions of dollars have been staked on trying to do so ahead of time, with little to no success.
Is it possible in the future that groups of funds will somehow perform worse than the individual stocks making up those groups? It's very hard to see how that could happen over any extended period of time.
Of course it is possible after the fact to find collections of individual stocks that have outperformed the index fund. Trillions of dollars have been staked on trying to do so ahead of time, with little to no success.
Is it possible in the future that groups of funds will somehow perform worse than the individual stocks making up those groups? It's very hard to see how that could happen over any extended period of time.