Mimicking Finance
For a while, the way normal people invested in stocks was through actively managed mutual funds. People would pool their money and give it to a skilled professional, who would buy and sell stocks to try to generate a return for the investors, and would charge a nice fee for her efforts.
Then some finance academics came along and spoiled the party. They said something to the effect of: “Look, you could just invest in the whole stock market. Buy every stock in proportion to its market capitalization, and you will get the market return. You won’t have to ...