What Our Investment Advisor Wont Say Off The Bat

• E*TRADE FINANCIAL Corporation (or E-Trade, NYSE symbol ET) - a holding company primarily known for its online discount stock brokerage.
• Price-weighted index - an index where the constituents are included based on their price. For a stock market index this implies that stocks are included in proportions based on their quoted prices.
• Market Capitalization - the aggregate value of a corporation's authorized shares.

Most advisors will tell you they can beat the market. They may even point to years in which they did. But now you will learn the little known fact that is seldom mentioned outside the financial world. It is very, very, VERY DIFFICULT TO BEAT THE MARKET.

The market in the United States, for the most, part is efficient. In fact the stock market is so hard to beat that most of the professionals do not do it. The only thing an investor should be looking at from an investment point if he/she uses a discount broker is the risk side. They should forget trying to beat the market with one exception.

The fact is that the market in the United States and most of the developed nations' markets reflect all the known public information in the current share price. That does mean that they are perfectly priced. Far from it, stories such as WorldCom, Enron and others make certainly possible to beat the market with non-public information. The only way to make a superior return on the market is to have insider information, and trading with that is a crime in America.

If you are trying to invest, try not to beat the market. Make long-term decisions and leave beating the market to the professionals.

David Healy has spent years studying finance. He is dedicated to the education of people in finance and can be found at http://www.geocities.com/overlord_77520