If you have been following this blog lately, I have basically been saying that (a) investors try too hard to beat the market by attempting to predict it (b) despite their best efforts, most are doomed to fail.

Some of you may think that I’m too negative about active management (I am). Also, since I used he words “noisy” and “unpredictable” on a number of occasions to describe the zigs and zags of the stock market, you may also have the impression that I view the stock market as nothing more than a casino. That would be incorrect though. In this and the next blog, I will show why I have a high opinion of the stock market as a long-term investment tool. Instead of writing a three-page piece to bring my point across, I will show simply you a picture (below). The picture has an important message. You “read” the