Buying the index is the orthodoxy. There isn't a strategy that I've heard more often from non-industry friends.
It's so orthodox even relatively straightforward ways of beating the index are largely ignored. Look up Falkenblog. He's got a thesis about it.
If I didn't run a hedge fund, I don't know what I'd do differently though. Costs are pretty high on individual accounts. One thing you can do is invest via spread betting, which is tax free in the uk. Also the sheer a mount of infrastructure, both in terms of financial data, modelling, and the systems used to execute strategies, makes it a bigger job than one person can do.
It's so orthodox even relatively straightforward ways of beating the index are largely ignored. Look up Falkenblog. He's got a thesis about it.
If I didn't run a hedge fund, I don't know what I'd do differently though. Costs are pretty high on individual accounts. One thing you can do is invest via spread betting, which is tax free in the uk. Also the sheer a mount of infrastructure, both in terms of financial data, modelling, and the systems used to execute strategies, makes it a bigger job than one person can do.