With regard to equity investing, I believe if you can't beat the indexes, then it's best to simply buy them. Over the past 14 years, a few methods I've discovered to outperform, and work more often than not, are:
1) Use an investment strategy other than indexing, e.g. sector, growth, momentum.
2) Trade the highs and lows, while limiting large losses due to corrections or major pullbacks.
3) Exercise discipline in the timing of buys, e.g. never buy an equity when it is setting an all-time records high, apply technical analysis.
4) Exercise discipline in taking some profit when an all-time record high is being set and reinvest those monies following a pullback, i.e. simply trade the highs and lows.
For those who strive to outperform the benchmarks, what other methods have worked for you over the past decade?