It's time for poker players to start putting their money to work.

[Scorpion Man]

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Tough one. My best shot:
1. Superior access to information (this can be gained legally or illegally or in the "grey" area where many professionals operate some of the time).
2) Superior analysis and understanding of publicly available information (some people understood the implications of the Fed's rate cutting campaign on real estate assets well before others figured it out, for example)

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Scorpion Man,

Come on, don't put on the "Let me tell about this thing called INVESTING" tone and then say stuff like this to beginning investors. Guys, you really shouldn't be listening to any of this if you want to have real success.

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OK, I erased the first paragraph I just wrote and I am trying to be Zen in the face of criticism which is not very well thought out.

I was asked what it took to consistently beat the stock market in general -- I did not take this as a "how to" question. I took it as "What do the people who are outperform in the stock market do and what abilities do they have that makes lead to their success over time.

Go ask any good long/short equity manager, show him that list, and ask what he thinks. In the space allotted, its a very precise list.

Beating the market over time in a way that is not defined by luck is extraordinarily difficult. Most people who have done it professionally are centimillionaires. You really think I can explain how they did it precisely in a post?? Can you teach me how to play 25/50NL HU in a single post?

I think you are misconstruing a few things, so to set it straight:
=I did not create this post to say "I can teach you quickly to pick stocks". In many ways its the opposite. I was posting to see if there was an opportunity to create a boutique serving poker players.
=The post you quote was not a "how to". OP asked if his parents had been lucky or good...and I was telling him the factors I would look for since he did not describe what their portfolio had been.

It is difficult to answer many of the questions here in a general fashion because they are coming from 2 types of people (and one of the types is split again)
=many folks want to get into the industry and asking questions from a professional standpoint
=others are asking about the personal portfolios, but really just want very general planning advice around which indexes to buy, etc
=still others are asking about their personal portfolios but have an interest in spending a lot of time learning about stocks

These are different audiences and the answers to them are really different...

I would love to hear, Hawk, what you thought was incorrect about what I posted and what the real way is to "real success" (which I assume you must have had from the tone of your post).