Two out of three expert stock-pickers lost to the market

67% of U.S. funds where experts hand-pick big-company stocks did worse than the S&P 500 — a basket tracking 500 large U.S. companies — in the SPIVA mid-2026 comparison from S&P Dow Jones Indices. About one-third did better. For ordinary savers, beating the market after fees and taxes is the exception, not the rule.