A lengthy comment came in that I suggest you read ( click here ) that covers a few points some of which are fair and some of which are off base. The gist is that it takes decades to truly understand a company, he says individuals cannot do this, he questions whether I know the companies I own, he says no one person can possibly understand more than an handful of companies, thinking otherwise is hubris and that investing differently than what he says is irresponsible. The first question of how well can someone know a company is the most reasonable question asked. No matter how well you think you know a company it is a guarantee that there are holders who know it better than you and holders who do not know it as well you, I am certainly no exception. I would think this would be obvious because when you buy someone else sells. That it takes decades to understand a company makes no sense to me whatsoever. If it did only 60 year-olds who had been in the business since they were 20 could possibly do the job but then how could they be in the business in the first place? The other obvious thing about decades is that many companies have not been around for decades or that the business has evolved in such a way that the companies are much different than they were ten years ago let alone decades ago. Stock picking is not easy and not for everyone, I have repeated that countless times but it is no where near the rocket science that this reader will have you believe. If you pick stocks you will get some right and you will get some wrong, it's that simple. If your ratio of rights and wrongs (and magnitudes of each) allows you to sleep comfortably and stay on track for your goals great, if not then don't be a stock picker.