"At some point, it raises the question of what actually is the market. If everyone is buying stocks based solely on their market value, how is that value actually being set?"
…
"According to research by Hendrik Bessembinder, professor of business and finance at Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business, over the 55-year period from 1971 through 2025, an equal-weight strategy beat the traditional value-based index approach by an average of 1.3 percentage points a year, or 12.6% to 11.3%. As the proponents of index funds repeatedly argue, such differences really make a big difference over time."