Personally, why do you stock pick when historically, only about 90% of investors beat the market?

You go Hawker centre and pick food. You buy your favourite store or you buy small portion from every store?

Some stores' food also taste like shit and waste money.

1. The market isn't my benchmark. I am my own benchmark. I set goals and work towards them. Maybe that's ego, as others have mentioned, but...

2. I have very specific goals around stable and steadily growing dividend income diversified across regions and currencies - I don't know of many (any?) broad-market products that offer a good yield for large companies in different countries with good fundamentals and stable track records of growing dividends. Typically those products would include companies that I am not satisified with or confident in - I want to diversify but not di-worse-ify my portfolio.

3. I have what I would consider to be a high risk apetite and so willing to go out on my own

4. I'm comforted by the fact that even if I don't beat the market, I'm still going to do better than the majority of people who don't invest at all

Ego. That's why.

Because sometimes, on some days, you want to buy Apple Stock and nothing else.