One way to beat index funds is through piggyback investing on those who can beat them.

Check out http://alphaclone.com/

You have to pay for a membership but the site is top notch. They parse investment fund's sec filings and allow you to backtest strategies to see how well they would have performed over a given time frame. You will find strategies that crush any index fund.

I am not affiliated with alphaclone.com.