That appears to be the conclusion Jeffrey Vinik reached when he decided recently to close Vinik Asset Management. He resurrected the hedge fund earlier this year after closing it in 2013. The move to reopen the fund was a bold act of defiance when investors are dumping stock pickers, including equity hedge funds, in favor of low-cost index funds. “I think this is an incredible opportunity for old-fashioned stock picking,” Vinik told CNBC in January. “We’ve had decades, maybe 10 or 20 years, of active managers underperforming passive managers.” So what happened?