The traditional appeal of dividend investing — steady income and lower volatility — is being challenged by a 2026 market that prizes price momentum over payout ratios. This has been going on for about 10 years. I know because I lived through it as a dividend investor.
About a decade ago, based on research I did with my then-college-aged son (now a CFA), we created Yield At a Reasonable Price (YARP)®, a factor that helps investors research dividend-paying stocks by analyzing their yield history. That’s a short-cut definition, but suffice it to say, around that time, dividend investing started to change. And not in a way that made it more attractive.
