The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that it is hard to resist picking stocks when markets turn volatile. The Globe's David Berman notes that only 33 per cent of money managers beat the S&P 500 in 2015, while 66 per cent lagged. Professional stockpickers generally fail to outperform the S&P 500. S&P reports slightly fewer than half of all large-cap funds outperformed the index during the last two downturns. S&P analysts say, "The belief that bear markets favour active management is a myth." Mr. Berman concedes he is not going beat the market, but he cannot help but try. He says his portfolio consists mostly of companies with big and rising dividends: Enbridge, Altria Group, Hydro One, Power Corp. of Canada and Brookfield Infrastructure Partners. If they outperform their underlying indexes, great. However, Mr. Berman says he is more interested in the cash they spin off. He says stockpicking provides a nice psychological cushion when the markets hit a rough patch. Being fully invested in index-tracking funds hurts when markets are tumbling, making it tempting to abandon strategies at the worst moments. Armed with cash, however, a downturn could represent opportunity.