I too believe that beating the market is possible, but I believe it takes more than the 4 elements you identified. Those things just improve your chances of beating the market, they don’t guarantee it. There’s some other element that can’t be taught. Call it talent, gut feelings, or whatever you want. Some people have it and others will develop it over time. But most will never know what this “it” is and will therefore not beat the market in the long run. When people come to this realization, their next best move is to “settle” for matching the market through diversification.

“I don’t use them at all. I don’t believe in indexing at all. If everyone’s doing indexing, it breeds mediocrity. We’re all gonna get the same performance. Mind you, that will be good because [good fund managers] will be able to keep our jobs. And the fact is that, we go to business schools. We take our CFA degrees etc to learn how to analyze and pick stocks, as opposed to buying what everyone else is buying. So in terms of ETFs, I’m not there and I’m not into indexing.”

Part 2 of the 3-part series on his thoughts can be found:
http://investorial.com/canadian/deep-value-face-off-irwin-michael-vs-ross-healy-part-2-of-3/