The Performance Gap

Everybody wants to outperform the market, but most investors underperform for a simple reason resulting in a sizable gap between investor returns and investment returns.

I am going to tell you what it is and how you can do better.

------------------
Follow Ben Felix on

Follow the Rational Reminder on:

Follow PWL Capital on:

You can find the Rational Reminder podcast on
Google Podcasts:
Apple Podcasts:
Spotify Podcasts:
------------------

[JulietHotelFoxtrot]

The best advice I got about portfolio management: your portfolio is like a bar of soap. The more you handle it, the smaller it gets.

[me]

When I was an undergrad, one of my business professors told my class that unless you decide to join a big name hedge fund, just invest in broad market index funds and ETFs, and take the time you would have spent staring at charts towards learning three things. One thing that's useful, one thing that's interesting, and one thing that's just plain fun.

[TheoreticallyNo]

My man, coming out with bangers day after day. Whenever I have the urge to twiddle with my portfolio I go adjust my fantasy football team instead.

[thenwhoami]

I feel so SO lucky to have found this channel as a completely green investor in my late 20s. Thanks Ben!

[AAkCN]

Brilliant and concise as always. Love the new rythm of videos ever few days! Thanks Ben

[YouWM]

Refreshing to see this type of channel on YouTube. Great research driven advice as always, thank you Ben!

[jamesbailey]

One thing I see a lot in online stock forums is people saying "Why should I buy the index instead of these 5-7 best companies?" and those 5-7 "best companies" change every 6 months- 2 years based on which companies have been performing well recently

[safetyfirst]

Since I started watching you guys, 😊 I expect my returns to be better in the long run

[Byssbod]

This is like gettign into "the fast lane" in hravy traffic. You often have watched the lane be fast for almost a minute. But when you get in that lane, it stops being fast after just 10 seconds

Sometimes it isnt like that, but often enough it is.

[loui]

These videos are absolutely gold! Best channel on investing.

[Duncan]

Loving these short but info-packed vids Ben!

[jakeobrien]

Glad to see you’re posting regularly on this channel again Ben! Keep up the good work!

[darkshadows]

Ben is on fire !!
Videos after videos!!
Loving it !!
Thank you from Australia

[mikephilpot]

Buy and hold.

The only way to capture the gains. The majority of gains only come on a few days every year. There is no way to know when those days will happen. Jumping in and out or between funds just increases the chance of missing those days and you will underperform.

Just pick the funds that provide low cost, evidence based indexes at a low cost for the asset classes you need and hold them for the long term.

The only time to switch funds is when your financial plan calls for it or if a fund changes its investment strategy and no longer matches the asset class for which you need it. (The latter is not likely if you are using funds from companies like DFA or Avantis)

Though, I do think a good reason to change funds is after you come to a channel like this one and learn about evidence based investing and decide to switch out of all your high cost, actively managed, stock picker funds and into funds following the Fama-French factor models using low cost, rules based indexes. 🤣

Big thumbs up on another great video with important investment advice. ❤

[varunpatwardhan]

I love your channel - your advice is spot on! I also loved philosophical take on money that your shared in some of your videos like renting vs buying and it's impact on happiness - just love all your wisdom and clarity it has brought in my life - finance impacts most aspects of life very deeply 😎

[jugzster]

So the lesson is, just buy the poorest performing funds?

Kidding aside, this is another reason why people should stop performance-chasing. Thanks Ben for another short and informative video

[EffigyOfficial]

No fluff and great advice! Your channel is incredible

[fabeulous]

How does the momentum factor fit into the story here? It seems like, on some short time scales, recent performance does indicate future performance, even if it may be hard to capture. Is it just a question of time scale?

[kuriosites]

Great advice for the casual investor who thinks he's going to beat the market.

[malcolmtheyeti]

As an engineer I really appreciate your clear logic and data driven insights, as usual it cuts against the grain of popular opinions. Having invested consistently since the mid 80s I have experienced first hand many of the topics you have covered in your YouTube videos. Consider doing a segment from your rational reminder series on “the most important lessons in investing”