Individual Stocks

Strong article on why to avoid individual stocks, but this detail particularly compelling:

Even among the 30 stocks with the highest cumulative compound returns the results were relatively modest—the median annualized return across the 30 stocks was 13.03%, while the mean was 13.05% and the largest was Altria Group’s 16.29%. How many investors would have guessed that one?

Meaning even if you manage to pick a winner (not as easy as it looks), the annualized returns are not what I'd call spectacular.