This simply isn’t true. My tech portfolio which consists of investment in only 12 companies is up this year by 28% at the moment, and last year even with the downturn in October through December I ended with gains of 17% for the year, and I assure you I’m no stock market wizard, and in fact I’ve never had a year that ended below 10% since starting that portfolio.

You could just say that’s thanks to the tech industry, but what’s your point? Through history there’s always a hot industry making money, be there.

My index fund portfolio only sees gains of 7-8% on average, but the trade off obviously is that it is not at the risk level of holding individual stocks. I barely even check it, individual stocks are what get my attention.

The point is, the gains are out there... always have been. But you have to step up and not be willing to let your investments just cruise on autopilot. Because financial education is so poor in this country, people rarely do it.

edit: Not sure why the down votes. Don’t believe? Here’s the current returns of my portfolio. Mind you, all of these were purchased around the beginning of the year because I had sold off everything to limit losses around the end of last year.

ADBE 27.28% AMD 78.87% AMZN 15.96% BABA 20.84% FB 20.80% MSFT 38.23% MTCH 29.77% NFLX 33.23% SQ 14.41% TWLO 24.67% TWTR 27.23%

There is one company not listed that I normally am invested in but have not done so this year as I’m biding my time.