To me, the phrase "beating the market" means getting a higher expected return than average
Oh, and by the way, that's not what this phrase means to most people. Its standard meaning is "achieve a return higher than that produced by buying and holding an portfolio of all assets in the given market".
For example, let's say that S&P500 returned 10% in year 20XX. This means that a portfolio of 500 stocks that constitute the S&P500 index has produced a 10% return for this year. Notably, this does NOT mean that the average return of all people who invested in some way in the US equity market is 10%.
To me, the phrase "beating the market" means getting a higher expected return than average
Its standard meaning is "achieve a return higher than that produced by buying and holding an portfolio of all assets in the given market".
Excellent point -- I tried using the fuzzy words "higher expected return than average" to drive home the zero-sumnes of the issue, but that phrasing does not reflect actually people mean by "beat the market".
Let's get concrete. What do you think are specific and realistic scenarios for ...
P/S/A: There are single sentences which can create life-changing amounts of difference.