Dogs of the Dow
ValueOn the first trading day of each January, buy the 10 highest dividend-yielding stocks in the Dow 30, equal weighted. Hold for the year, then rebalance. Yield is estimated from trailing 12-month dividends over price.
See this in the terminal — live earnings bands, fair value and rates.
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The boring, high-yield "dogs" of the Dow beat the index everyone benchmarks to.
The rule. On the first trading day of each January, buy the 10 highest dividend-yielding stocks in the Dow 30, equal weighted. Hold for the year, then rebalance. Yield is estimated from trailing 12-month dividends over price.
What actually happened.
- $10,000 became $74,331. The same $10,000 in Dow Jones (DIA) became $64,103. This strategy beat the benchmark by $10,228.
- Compounded at 14.3% a year vs 13.2% for the benchmark.
- Best year: 2013 (+25%). Worst year: 2015 (-2%). This is not a smooth ride.
The catch. At its worst, this strategy fell -32% from a prior peak — shallower than the benchmark's -37%. Would you have held through that? Most people don't. That's the whole game.
The takeaway. It worked here — but "it worked in the past" is the most expensive sentence in investing. The edge is real only if it survives costs, taxes, and the drawdown above. Show your work, then decide.
Holding right now (2026-01-02): AMGN, CVX, HD, JNJ, KO, MCD, MRK, NKE, PG, UNH.
Drawdown from prior peak
Calendar-year returns
| Line | 11* | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dogs of the Dow | +15% | +16% | +25% | +10% | -2% | +19% | +23% | +3% | +22% | +2% | +20% | +11% | +6% | +17% | +21% | +11% |
| Dow Jones (DIA) | +12% | +10% | +30% | +10% | +0% | +16% | +28% | -4% | +25% | +10% | +21% | -7% | +16% | +15% | +15% | +9% |
* Partial year — the backtest does not cover this whole calendar year, so it is excluded from the best and worst year figures.
Holding now · 2026-01-02
Dividend yield is estimated from trailing 12-month dividends over price; small timing differences vs the exact index-date yield are possible. How we test
Rebalance: annual (first trading day of January), equal weight · Window: 2011-09-28 → 2026-09-28 · Last run Sep 28, 2026 · JSON