This guy has some interesting points.
http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/04/10-reasons-you-should-never-own-stocks-again/
A couple thoughts – the VFS Investment Contest can be used to see if you are an above average stock ticker – though don’t get too confident till you beat the market for a few years anyway. Also, my current thought on how you beat the competition he discusses: stay away from owning big cap stocks – the bigger the stocks market cap, the more crooks are attracted to game the stock. By sticking with small market stocks (under 10 billion in market cap) – hopefully you can fly under the radar of alot of the crooks. Just a thought.