beating the market

Legg Mason's Bill Miller was the mutual fund industry's rock star through the 1990s and the first few years of this millennium. Now he's unplugging his amp and walking off the stage.

Market turbulence and economic uncertainty create fear and anxiety among investors. Unfortunately, many turn to advice freely dispensed by self-styled investment gurus -- who claim they can predict the direction of the markets or pick outperforming stocks.

The financial media loves to pluck struggling analysts from obscurity and propel them to fame on the backs of a few good calls, then shoot them full of arrows at them when their predictions start to fail. And inevitably, those so-called gurus will fail. Here's why.

The financial crisis exposed an industry that couldn't manage its own portfolios, much less provide worthwhile advice to clients. Yet 85% of investors continue to invest with brokers. Here are 10 reasons why that's a mistake.