re: Self Directed IRA

You can own stocks in a regular IRA. Your risk/reward ratio is not as good as with an index fund, but you can do it, no problem.

A self-directed IRA allows you to hold certain additional assets such as private placements, raw land, farmland, tax liens, hedge funds, collectibles, etc.

Interestingly, you can hold real estate with a regular IRA provided you always rent it out and never live there. Although many custodians won't support that the IRS allows it.

ETA: Individual stocks don't beat the market on average either, basically you have to get lucky. Mutual funds are better in this regard, and index funds better than that. Hardly anyone "beats the market" although one can validly argue about what that phrase actually means.