Are Dividend Stocks Dead?

Dichotomy has swallowed our collective brain.

With black-and-white coloring the national discourse on just about everything, it's no surprise that we have had a gaggle of market geeks calling the end of the dividend stock rally for much of the year.

Truth be told, I don't pay much attention these types of rallies. Most long-term investors shouldn't either.

While I don't necessarily advocate buy-and-hold (because, by and large, it is dead), it's even more insane to chase what's hot. You'll be in dividend stocks one day, real estate plays the next and utilities when the market turns bear. Unless you have loads of information, tons of time and considerable resources, it's not easy to win with such a fluid strategy.

No matter the market, it comes down to stock picking.

Ask folks who, five years ago when it didn't appear quite as crazy, threw money at Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) , Dell (DELL) and Cisco Systems (CSCO) how things turned out. All three stocks have shed heavy double-digits, whereas an investment in the Nasdaq 100 index via the Powershares QQQ ETF (QQQ) would have returned greater than 20%.

Bull market, bear market. Dividends hot or not. You have to pick the right stocks.

Consider something I read over at Mutley Fool the other day.

One of their guys, in making a bull case for MSFT on value, wrote that the stock "enjoys" a 3.2% dividend yield. Enjoys.

Since that piece posted, that "enjoyable" yield lifted to 3.4%. That's supposed to be a good thing?