The overall return of the Nasdaq 100 ETF $QQQ over the past 10 years is: 471%, with an annualized return rate of: 19.8%. Setting aside factors like valuation premiums and high liquidity in the U.S. stock market, simply viewing the QQQ ETF as a company means that this company would need to grow its net profit by 20% each year for 10 consecutive years to achieve such returns. So, how many companies in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 meet this requirement? The answer is: 0 😄😄😄 Lowering the requirements a bit, over the past ten years, only about 1% of the companies in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 have a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of net profit exceeding 20% per year, such as: $NVDA $AMZN $META $ANET $AVGO $SMCI $LLY $FICO This is why, over a 10-year period, only 0.04% of mutual funds/active equity funds have outperformed QQQ (Baron Partners Fund, which mainly holds Tesla $TSLA, has outperformed QQQ over the past 5, 10, and 15 years); only 2% of large-cap growth funds have outperformed QQQ; and nearly 0% of hedge funds have outperformed QQQ. The public often has the illusion that media spotlight = good investment performance, but in reality, with a little research, you might find that these big-name investors may not perform better than you 😄 Important point to mention at the end: ordinary investors holding index funds long-term will outperform 98-99% of institutional/retail investors.