Are there investors out there who can consistently beat the market without adding a ton of risk to their portfolios? Yes. They are known as Alphas. Are you an Alpha? Probably not. There are very few of these folks out there, and even the best of them — including Warren Buffett — can slip for a few years. Here’s Jeff Sommer in the NYT: “True investing skill is so rare that the rest of us shouldn’t even try to emulate those who have it. In addition … we probably shouldn’t bother trying to hire the few outperformers to invest our money. Why? Because we aren’t likely to be able to identify them.”