Dividends are forced liquidation events. If you want dividends simply sell a portion of your holdings every quarter. When one focuses solely on dividend yield

Dividends are forced liquidation events. If you want dividends simply sell a portion of your holdings every quarter. When one focuses solely on dividend yield and not total return, which includes capital appreciation, it's a sign they don't really what's going on. Where do you think the dividends are coming from? Straight from the company's market cap. By preferring companies that consistently pay high dividend yields you're selecting for larger and established companies that have no better way to reinvest the money. This may result in a fine choice if you want income, but the important distinction is not because of their dividend yield... it's because of their positions as market leaders. Thus you may do just as well by selecting those large market leaders that pay no dividends but are reinvesting heavily.