The S&P 500 has long been viewed as the benchmark for the stock market. It comprises about 500 of the largest companies that trade on a major U.S. stock exchange. It's a market-cap, weight-based index, which means that the larger the company's value, the larger the percentage of the index the stock represents.

Many investment professionals strive to beat the return of the S&P 500, but that has not proven to be an easy task. The index has generated strong results over the years, averaging a 13.2% annual return over the past 10 years as of the end of July. According to S&P, over 87% of U.S. large-cap funds have underperformed the S&P 500 over the past decade.

However, one exchange-traded fund (ETF) has consistently outperformed the S&P 500 over the past decade, and I think that outperformance will continue in the next decade as well. That ETF is the Vanguard Growth ETF (NYSEMKT: VUG).

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Source Fool.com