# Dividend yield

> Yield is the income a position pays relative to what it is worth today. It moves when the price moves, which is why a rising yield is not always good news.

Dividend yield is the income a holding pays relative to its current value:

```
yield = dividends over the trailing period / current value
```

It answers "what is this position paying me, on what it is worth now". The
holdings table shows it alongside a **dividends over twelve months** column,
which is the cash amount rather than the percentage. For closed positions that
column reads as lifetime dividends instead, since a trailing twelve month
window means little once you no longer hold it.

## The denominator is the catch

Yield has price in the denominator, so it moves whenever the price moves, even
if the dividend never changes.

A position whose price falls by a third shows a yield that rises by half,
having paid you nothing extra. This is the single most misread number in income
investing: a yield that climbs on its own is usually reporting a falling price,
not improving income. The dividend amount column is the one to check when a
yield changes, because it tells you whether the numerator actually moved.

The mirror image also holds. A position that has risen sharply will show a
falling yield while paying you exactly as much as before.

## Trailing, not forward

This yield is built from dividends that have actually been paid, over the
trailing window. It is not a forecast, and Gylder does not project what a
holding will pay next year on the strength of what it paid last year.

That means a recently cut dividend keeps showing in the figure until it ages
out of the window, and a recently raised one takes time to show up fully. The
Dividends tab plots the payment history over time, which makes cuts and rises
visible in a way a single trailing number cannot.

## Yield against price versus yield against cost

This page is about yield on current value. The related figure,
[yield on cost](/concepts/yield-on-cost), divides the same income by what you
originally paid instead. The two answer genuinely different questions and it is
worth being clear which one you are reading.