I have had a modest "play" portfolio of individual stocks since about 2005. I have had some ups and downs, but overall it has done well, at least according to typical online tools for examining performance. I have been happy with stocks like Apple, Google, Berkshire, etc but also had a couple dogs like HP and Cisco (which I still own because they are bouncing back). I have a strong "hunting" mentality - for me the fun is in finding stocks and purchasing them. After that, I sort of lose interest and am on to the next one. Since 2005 I have only given up and sold one net loser: Blackberry. Ouch. The total count today is about 20 stocks.
The stocks are invested with Vanguard but I also have used other (easier) tools for monitoring performance which mostly show absolute appreciation since purchase but are not so good at showing annualized rates and/or comparing to common indices such as the S&P500. I have always wanted to do this myself in Excel but didn't want to pay for the plug-ins to pull in stock quotes (and definitely don't enjoy entering quotes manually). With Excel 2013, it is a feature so I thought I would try it. I calculated the total and annualized rate of return for each stock and for the whole portfolio. Then I compared it to a low cost index fund: VTSAX. I compared the current value of each stock to the "opportunity cost" - an equivalent quantity of VTSAX as if I had purchased it the same day.
The result? Essentially the same rate of return for my portfolio as for VTSAX. The stocks did return a (taxable) dividend but that was more or less offset by the Blackberry loss.
My conclusion? Stock picking is fun and hasn't "cost" me anything relative to a decent index fund the last decade or so. I may have been lucky (or unlucky - I sold 800 shares of Apple in 2005!!!). I also realized several stocks I own which are well in the black have trailed the index, so maybe I should dump them if I don't see greater potential ahead. Duh.
Then again, maybe my time is better spent on things which are even more fun than on screwing around with individual stocks.