So how's that index fund doing for you now?  With stocks essentially treading water with levels seen many years ago, those that invested in index funds have essentially lost money if you take into account inflation.

This year, index fund investors are staring are viewing an absolute train wreck.  Many don't even bother to open statements at a time when doing so should be a call to action.  There has simply been no better time to get away from a failed strategy.

Stop investing in index funds, please.  Talk about an absolute fraud.  Those firms selling index funds offer minimal value cloaked under the guise of the white knight riding to rescue you from the evils of Wall Street.

Don't pay a broker or advisor to manage your money.  We the index fund company know for a fact that you cannot beat the market.  Why pay high fees trying?  Instead, pay us a tidy fee for buying stocks in lock step with some random index.

Seriously does anyone else have a problem with this approach?  Why investors plow millions of dollars into this white flag of surrender strategy is beyond my comprehension.

Perhaps I am too much of a simpleton.  Honestly, I just do not get it.  Heck, using darts to select stocks may very well perform better than index investing.

During this recent crisis I have been quite critical of another failed strategy called buy and hold investing.  My complaint there was mostly of an industry inherently biased towards not selling stocks no matter the benefits of limited trading and reallocation of portfolios based on the business cycle or significant crisis.

My critique of index investing goes much deeper.  While there are clearly benefits of using a buy and hold strategy in many circumstances the same cannot be said of index investing.

About the only positive thing to be said about index investing is that it beats putting the money under a mattress.  Beyond that there just is nothing good to say about the strategy.

Those proponents of the approach include some famous names like industry founder John Bogle.  His Vanguard 500 Index Fund was launched in 1975 under the influence of academic experts who believed that over the long term, investors could not do better than the market. (See also: "5 Vanguard Funds to Sell Now.")

According to Bogle why pay huge fees to managers that claim to beat the market, but rarely do.  To him the advice being given from Wall Street was not worth the price paid.  Instead…