The Globe and Mail reports in its Monday edition that it's not easy to be an active fund manager these days. The Globe's Tim Shufelt writes that the more you deviate from the benchmark index, the worse your odds. That's the way it is when most of the returns are driven by fewer, larger stocks at the top of the market: You end up with more than three-quarters of publicly traded stocks trailing the market. Then there's the extreme gap between the stocks that beat and the ones that lag. The average outperforming stock in the S&P 500 has beaten the index by 600 per cent over the past 10 years. In 2009, that number was just 100 per cent. The average outperforming stock in the S&P 500 has beaten the index by 600 per cent over the past 10 years. The average laggard, meanwhile, has trailed the market by minus-205 per cent over the past decade. In 2009, for example, the average laggard was minus-37 per cent. There is only one surefire way to always own the stock market's greatest companies, and that's simply to own the market in its entirety. Of course, a passive approach means also owning the duds. But somehow, the good seem to outweigh the bad, and you end up with nearly 10-per-cent annual returns over the long term.