https://www.spdrs.com/product/fund.seam?ticker=sdy
If it doesn't track well, they are doing a pretty crap job with it. Again, something is not making sense here.
-W
Whenever someone claims to be able to beat the market, then publishes the method, you are wise to be skeptical. The Dividend Aristocrats:
http://us.spindices.com/indices/strategy/sp-500-dividend-aristocratsHold about 53 stocks which "measure the performance S&P 500 companies that have increased dividends every year for the last 25 consecutive years. The Index treats each constituent as a distinct investment opportunity without regard to its size by equally weighting each company."
There don't seem to be any ETFs that track this right now, besides the newly created NOBL. Hopefully, over the next few decades or so (if the fund isn't closed by then), this ETF will show a live example of the returns you can expect by following the Dividend Aristocrats.
The High Yield Dividend Aristocrats:
http://us.spindices.com/indices/strategy/sp-high-yield-dividend-aristocrats-indexHold about 96 stocks which are "designed to measure the performance of companies within the S&P Composite 1500® that have followed a managed-dividends policy of consistently increasing dividends every year for at least 20 years." This is the higher yielding and more diversified cousin of the Dividend Aristocrats. This is what the SDY tracks. All information presented, shows the SDY underperforms a total stock market index (VTSAX), and has around 7x higher fees.
For the new traders reading this, some questions you should consider, in addition to all the alarm bells which should already be going off while reading this thread:
1. If the Dividend Aristocrats represent a free lunch, and are indeed beating the market, where's the live evidence? Certainly a fund manager somewhere would be willing to charge a 2-3% fee to offer their clients this free lunch? Is it possible these funds all underperformed, and were liquidated? (Survivorship Bias) Does it surprise you that there are literally 0 funds/ETFs tracking the Dividend Aristocrats (or any other dividend strategy that I can find), which beats the simple, cheap market index VTSAX?
2. If this really is a free lunch, why hasn't the market already bought up all the stock, bidding up the price until the companies (still good companies) stock is so expensive, that any dividend gain is lost? Is it your belief that while the market is aware of this free money opportunity (it is published, after all), the entire market chooses to not take advantage?
3. This is investing money solely in the stocks which have performed well over the past 25 years, hoping they will continue to perform well in the next 25 years. Does that sound like a good idea to you? If so, you're might be much newer to investing than you think, and would do well do to some additional reading
4. Does it surprise you that the only supporting evidence shown thus far in support of Dividend Aristocrats, were sourced from companies which profit from their higher fees, and have mangers which they claim can use dividends to "beat the market"?
Remember, all the evidence shows that over the next 50 years, the chances are 99%+ that your index portfolio will beat this, and with significantly less work and risk. Don't be tempted, your life savings, and your ability to retire (or stay retired) is not worth it.
"Of the 355 equity funds in 1970, fully 233 of those funds have gone out of business. Only 24 oupaced the market by more than 1% a year. These are terrible odds." Jack Bogle (2007)