[spider]

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Spider, this was not intended to be another thread on fund-picking, merely my thoughts on differentiating btw alpha and beta for 2p2ers.

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Yeah, I get that part, and I'm not trying to hijack the thread, it's just that I think for many people the second stage here is ultimately more relevant (i.e. first stage is generating the alpha (Buffet, Gross, etc., the second stage is who shares in the alpha they generate). It seems like an open (and interesting) question to me as to whether someone with around 200k of assets should really buy anything besides index funds. Or maybe put it like this: if you are trying to find an alpha generating manager, are you yourself generating alpha?

Or to be anecdotal about it: If your aunt asks what to do with her 200k, what do you tell her? Assuming you want to minimize your "responsibility" for whatever happens. IOW, you aren't going to give her your 5 stock picks b/c no matter how great they are that would be bad on at least a couple levels. So do you tell her VFINX or Berkshire?

Anyway, not asking for an answer on that, just clarifying. Though of course, if you have any thoughts on that I'd be curious to hear them.