Mark Hulbert, editor of the Hulbert Financial Digest, monitors the real-time records of financial writers who report their recommendations in newsletters. He has tracked the performance of these adviser over the past 26 years, and here’s what he finds:

Of the 35 newsletters that existed in 1980:
- only 13 are still in business today.
- only 3 outperformed the market over the subsequent 26 years.
Of the other 22 advisers:
- only 2 were ahead of the S&P 500 Index when they discontinued publication.

–The Little Book of Common Sense Investing, John Bogle