2B, I agree with you 100%. I should have added a few words to my post for clarity.
I really did mean 'try' to beat the market, and meant to imply (when I said 'then, buy low cost, index mutual funds.') that one is almost certain to fail (club or no club).
So I'll be clearer, an individual investor, or a club, or a professional, or a group of professionals, is very unlikely to consistently beat the market on a risk adjusted basis. Add tax implications, and it's tougher.
I think there was a thread a while back on momentum investing, and IIRC, the proponents of this method never came up with a mutual fund that used the technique and that also beat the market on a risk-adjusted basis.
It is very tempting for people to ignore the 'risk/volatility' component when they say they 'beat the market', but often, a position in a riskier index fund (or leveraging that fund) will provide superior returns, with less volatility, and less cost.
-ERD50