Investment Performance of the "Dogs of the Dow” Strategies: Latest Evidence

Abstract

Abstract-The purpose of this research is to examine the risk-adjusted investment performance of three versions of the 'Dogs of the Dow' or 'DOD' strategies, relative to that of the broader Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA). Specifically, the research explores the traditional DOD portfolio (Dow-10), the Dow-5 and the 'Small Dogs of the Dow' (Small Dogs). An empirical analysis utilizing the Sharpe ratio is used to investigate the relative investment performance of the DOD variants. Over the period 1996-2016, the three DOD portfolios outperform the DJIA, in terms of, raw annual returns, total sample period returns, risk-adjusted annual returns, risk-adjusted rolling period returns and Sharpe ratios. The study concludes that the DOD strategies provide superior risk-adjusted returns than the DJIA Index and that the dividend-driven/contrarian methods may deliver enhanced returns, compared with the buy-and-hold of Dow-30 Index.Index Terms-Dividend investing, dogs of the dow, investment performance, sharpe ratio.