Analysis
Dividend Growth vs High Yield: When a Growing Payout Wins
A growing 3% yield passes a flat 6% yield in annual income by year 9 and in total by year 15, so the choice turns on your horizon and on growth holding up.
Options · Swing trading · Prop firms · Dividends · Earnings · Economy
Trading and investing, with the arithmetic shown
Every page answers one question a trader or investor actually asks, works the numbers through on a hypothetical account, and says where the answer stops holding. Read the analysis, look up a term, take a course, or run a calculator.
- Dividends Special Dividends Tell You Little About Next Year's Payout Yields that include a special dividend overstate future income, so judge a stock on its regular dividend and count specials as variable.
- Prop Trading Prop Firm Evaluation Fees: Budget Them Like a Business Cost Evaluation fees pay off for a trader whose strategy already fits the rules; set a quarterly fee budget and stop when it is spent.
- Options How Far Out to Buy Calls: More Time Than Your Idea Needs When buying calls, pick an expiration well past the date your idea needs, then compare the cost of each day of time.
- Prop Trading Prop Firm Consistency Rule: How to Trade Your Best Day Under a consistency rule a big day raises the profit you need before a payout, so cap daily gains near the rule's limit.
- All analysis →
Topics
All topics → 1Options
Premium, time decay, assignment and the arithmetic of a contract.
- How Far Out to Buy Calls: More Time Than Your Idea Needs
- Selling Puts: Price the Bad Week Before You Sell
- Rolling Options: Why a Losing Roll Is a New Trade in Disguise
16 pages
2Swing Trading
Holding for days to weeks: entries, stops, gaps and the weekend.
- Holding Stocks Over the Weekend Is a Position Sizing Decision
- Multiple Timeframe Analysis: Let the Weekly Chart Veto Daily Setups
- Swing Trading Earnings: Plan Every Trade Around the Next Report
13 pages
3Prop Trading
Evaluations, drawdown rules, payouts and trading someone else's capital.
- Prop Firm Evaluation Fees: Budget Them Like a Business Cost
- Prop Firm Consistency Rule: How to Trade Your Best Day
- Intraday Trailing Drawdown: Why Giving Back Profit Costs You
14 pages
4Dividends
Ex-dates, taxes, reinvestment and the income a portfolio can produce.
- Dividend Growth vs High Yield: When a Growing Payout Wins
- Special Dividends Tell You Little About Next Year's Payout
- Dividend Capture Rarely Survives the Ex-Date Price Drop
14 pages
5Earnings
Calendars, release times, estimates and the move around a report.
- Earnings Gap Trading: Let the Gap Be Tested Before You Chase It
- Buying Options Before Earnings: The Move Is Already Priced
- Sell Before Earnings? Stepping Aside Is a Strategy in Its Own Right
14 pages
6Economy
Inflation, jobs, rates and the releases that move the whole market.
- Core Inflation Deserves More of Your Attention Than the Headline
- Jobs Report Revisions: One Payroll Number Is Only a First Draft
- How Do Rising Interest Rates Affect Dividend Stocks?
7 pages
7Investing
Evaluating a stock, measuring growth, diversifying and keeping your account safe.
- Multi-Manager Hedge Funds: How Millennium-Style Pods Work
- Nuclear Energy ETFs: What Uranium Funds Actually Hold
- Diversification: Building a Portfolio That Holds Up
6 pages
Free courses
All courses →- Beginner · 4 lessonsHow to Evaluate a Stock: A Starter CourseInvestors who have bought a fund or two and now want to judge a single company from its own filings.
- Beginner · 4 lessonsInvestor Protection Basics: Safeguarding Your Money and AccountAnyone opening a brokerage account, or already holding one, who wants to know what protects it and where the gaps are.
- Intermediate · 4 lessonsGrowth Stocks: Measuring Growth That LastsInvestors who can already read an income statement and want a method for judging a company whose sales are climbing fast.
- Beginner · 4 lessonsDiversification: Building a Portfolio That Holds UpInvestors with a handful of holdings who want a plan for the portfolio as a whole, and a way to tell whether it is really spread out.
- Beginner · 4 lessonsOptions for Beginners: Calls, Puts and Your First TradeStock investors who have never placed an options trade and want the mechanics in order before the first order goes in.
- Beginner · 4 lessonsDividend Income Portfolio: Building One That Pays YouInvestors who want a stock portfolio that produces regular cash, whether they reinvest it now or plan to spend it later.
Questions readers ask
All explainers →- Prop Firm News Trading: Is It Allowed Around Big Releases?
- Should You Close an Option or Let It Expire?
- Do You Get the Dividend If You Sell on the Ex-Dividend Date?
- How Are Dividends Taxed in the US?
- How Do Prop Firm Evaluations Work?
- How Do Prop Firm Payouts Work?
- How Do Rising Interest Rates Affect Dividend Stocks?
- How Do You Read an Earnings Calendar?
Calculators
All calculators →- Options Profit CalculatorProfit or loss at expiration for a long or short call or put, with the breakeven and a payoff table.
- Expected Move CalculatorThe move an option price implies, from implied volatility or from the straddle, before earnings or any date.
- Swing Trade Risk CalculatorShares from your risk and stop, the reward-to-risk in R, and the win rate the trade needs to break even.
- Prop Firm Drawdown CalculatorWhere a static or trailing drawdown floor sits after each day, and how much room is left.
- Dividend Reinvestment CalculatorShares and income over the years with dividends reinvested, against taking them as cash.
- Dividend Income CalculatorThe portfolio a target income needs at a given yield, before and after tax, or the income a portfolio pays.
From the glossary
A to Z →- Basis point
- BMO and AMC
- Daily loss limit
- Dividend growth rate
- Dividend reinvestment plan (DRIP)
- Early assignment
- Earnings guidance
- Earnings surprise
- Ex-dividend date
- Expected move
- Extrinsic value
- Funded account
- Inside bar
- Open interest
- Pin risk
- Profit split
- Pullback
- Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI)
- Qualified dividend
- R-multiple
- Record date and payment date
- Scaling plan
- Swing high and swing low
- Trailing drawdown