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Dividend Vision

Dividend Vision Academy

Investing Metrics

The numbers behind risk and return. These lessons break down the ratios and statistics that reveal how a fund actually behaves — volatility, Sharpe and Sortino ratios, drawdowns, and more — so you can compare funds on more than just their yield.

Investing Metrics Returns-Based Style Analysis: The Copycat Portfolio Test Returns-based style analysis asks whether a homemade mix of cheap index ETFs could have matched a fund's returns. The copycat portfolio separates explainable exposure from alpha. 🟣 Advanced26 min read Investing Metrics Beta Beta measures how sharply a fund moves relative to the overall market. For income and ETF investors, it is a quick gauge of how much market turbulence a holding will pass through to your portfolio. 🔵 Intermediate12 min read Investing Metrics Distribution Safety Score™ The Distribution Safety Score™ is Dividend Vision's rules-based 0–100 estimate of how safe a fund's distribution looks. It starts at 100, deducts points for specific red flags, and always shows you exactly what's pulling a score down. 🔵 Intermediate29 min read Investing Metrics DV Income Vision™: How We Project Distributions Dividend Vision Income Vision™ is our forward-income projection — the estimate behind Est. Annual, the projected dividends chart, and the income calendar. It replaces the industry-standard "last payment × frequency" model with a per-fund projection — declared payments first, one-off specials filtered out, ex-dates walked on the NYSE calendar, and pay dates walked on the Fed settlement calendar. 🔵 Intermediate21 min read Investing Metrics Income vs Total Return The central debate of income investing — should you spend only what a portfolio pays out, or maximize growth and sell shares as needed? The math, the behavior, and where each philosophy genuinely wins. 🟣 Advanced12 min read Investing Metrics Nominal Yield vs Real Yield Nominal yield is the percentage printed on the page; real yield adjusts for inflation. Real yield better describes whether income is preserving purchasing power. 🟢 Beginner5 min read Investing Metrics PEG Ratio The PEG ratio compares a stock's price-to-earnings ratio with its expected earnings growth, adding growth context to a valuation multiple. 🔵 Intermediate9 min read Investing Metrics Safety-Adjusted Yield Safety-Adjusted Yield weights a fund's distribution rate by its Distribution Safety Score™ — yield × score ÷ 100 — so a durable 8% outranks a fragile 15%, and the number rewards income you can actually keep. 🔵 Intermediate8 min read Investing Metrics SEC Yield The 30-day SEC yield is a standardized measure of a fund's income, net of expenses, that lets you compare ETFs on an apples-to-apples basis. It is often lower — and more honest — than the headline distribution rate. 🔵 Intermediate13 min read Investing Metrics Sharpe Ratio The Sharpe ratio measures how much return an investment earns for each unit of risk it takes. For income and ETF investors, it separates funds that pay you well from funds that simply gamble. 🔵 Intermediate12 min read Investing Metrics Sortino Ratio The Sortino ratio is a refinement of the Sharpe ratio that measures return per unit of downside risk only, ignoring the upside swings income investors are happy to keep. 🔵 Intermediate11 min read Investing Metrics Total Return Total return is the complete measure of what an investment earned — both the income it paid you and the change in its price. It is the only number that tells you whether you actually came out ahead. 🟢 Beginner10 min read

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Apply what you've learned

Put these Investing Metrics concepts to work — research candidates, then run the numbers.

Safety-adjusted-yield ETF list Income calculator