The Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF (VYM +0.50%) and the ProShares – S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF (NOBL +1.08%) stand in stark contrast to each other, a curious juxtaposition that serves only to highlight the absurdity of investment choices: two entities, bound by invisible laws, both seeking the same goal of dividend yield, yet bound by wildly disparate frameworks. While the former holds 589 stocks, the latter, seemingly obsessed with perfection, confines itself to a narrower scope, gathering its treasures from the vast S&P 500, each marked by its years of dividend constancy. The cost of their ambitions, meanwhile, presents a paradox: VYM, with its more generous approach, charges less for the privilege, while NOBL’s exclusivity comes at a premium.
The Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF, like a hapless bureaucrat caught in the sprawling web of financial markets, tracks an index more expansive than its rival’s, a sprawling landscape of American companies, each clinging to a forecast of above-average dividend yield. The mere thought of these stocks-their hands outstretched for the promise of higher returns-becomes a hollow echo in the wind. Its fee, a meager 0.06% as of October 31, 2025, stands in eerie contrast to NOBL’s 0.35%, an additional burden for those seeking returns but finding themselves entrapped by bureaucracy. Herein lies the dilemma: those with a mind for the immediate, for the costs that bind them, may find comfort in VYM’s less demanding toll. But is it comfort, or simply a continuation of the eternal chase for more? A pursuit unending, as both seek the same elusive dividend yield.
Snapshot (cost & size)
| Metric | NOBL | VYM |
|---|---|---|
| Issuer | ProShares | Vanguard |
| Expense ratio | 0.35% | 0.06% |
| 1-yr return (as of Oct. 31, 2025) | (1.8%) | 10.0% |
| Dividend yield | 2.1% | 2.5% |
| Beta | 0.86 | N/A |
| AUM | $11.1 billion | $81.3 billion |
Beta measures price volatility relative to the S&P 500; figures use five-year weekly returns.
Performance & risk comparison
| Metric | NOBL | VYM |
|---|---|---|
| Max drawdown (5 y) | (17.92%) | (15.85%) |
| Growth of $1,000 over 5 years | $1,396 | $1,734 |
What’s inside
The Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF, its very structure reminiscent of a bureaucratic labyrinth, holds 589 U.S. stocks. The weighting, itself a cruel joke, favors Financial Services (22%), Technology (16%), and Healthcare (12%), sectors that stand as pillars in the economic machine, each propped up by its own sense of self-importance. The holdings themselves-Broadcom Inc (AVGO 1.73%), JPMorgan Chase (JPM +0.28%), and Exxon Mobil (XOM +2.38%)-though seemingly modest in their share of the portfolio, are but small cogs in an absurdly complex, self-perpetuating system of wealth distribution.
Meanwhile, NOBL, forever intent on maintaining its high standards, chooses to play a narrower game. Its 70 holdings are based on a singular principle: long-term dividend growth. These companies, equally weighted in the portfolio like so many indistinguishable forms, seem to exist only for one purpose: to maintain their status as Dividend Aristocrats, a title bestowed not by merit, but by rigid, unyielding adherence to a set of financial rules. Companies like C.H. Robinson Worldwide (CHRW +0.82%), Cardinal Health (CAH +2.87%), and Caterpillar (CAT 1.17%) appear within the fund, but their existence seems pointless, as though they are eternally doomed to remain at 0.02% of assets, too insignificant to make a real difference in the grand, impersonal scheme.
For those seeking clarity in this financial nightmare, the Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF-by tracking the FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield Index-aligns itself with businesses poised to offer higher-than-average dividend yields. These companies, chosen not by human discretion but by the cold, calculated logic of a formula, must meet the requirements to exist within the fund’s portfolio, ranked only by their forward-looking dividend yields and market caps. It is a cruel game, one that binds companies to a set of criteria, without escape or reprieve.
The ProShares – S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF, for its part, claims to track the best of the best-companies within the S&P 500 that have consistently raised their dividends for a quarter of a century. But what is consistency, if not a perpetual march forward, an endless reaffirmation of a system that no one can opt out of? Both of these funds, though presenting themselves as distinct, serve only to reinforce the same dread: the inescapable, cyclical nature of investing in markets that are beyond comprehension.
Foolish take
It is almost as if these two funds exist to challenge the very notion of choice. The Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF, though more successful in the recent past, seems to be following a strategy that could be described as mechanical, cold, and emotionless-qualities that will eventually drag the investor into the same bureaucratic purgatory where dividends, yield, and risk swirl into an unending vortex of uncertainty. But that is the nature of this strange universe, where the ProShares – S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF, with its greater adherence to rules and regulations, fails to achieve the same level of success. A result, perhaps, of too much rigidity, a commitment to the tried and true, without the possibility of deviation.
In the end, both funds, in their quest for dividend yield, reveal the inherent contradiction of investing itself: no matter the approach, no matter the strategy, one is caught in a system that punishes deviation and rewards nothing but the blind adherence to its cold, unfeeling rules.
Glossary
ETF (Exchange-Traded Fund): A vehicle that seeks to trap investors in a mesh of stocks or bonds, offering the false promise of diversification.
Expense ratio: A hidden tax on the investor, measured as a percentage of assets, charged for the privilege of being a part of the machine.
Dividend yield: A cruel reminder of the little return one might expect, expressed as a percentage of the current price.
AUM (Assets Under Management): The vast sum, collected and managed, yet offering little to the individual caught within its grasp.
Beta: A measure of volatility, a gauge of how much one might lose-or gain-relative to the market.
Max drawdown: The greatest fall from grace a fund may experience, a stark reminder of the risks that never seem to disappear.
Rules-based approach: A methodology devoid of human intervention, a system that operates according to arbitrary guidelines.
Equally weighted: A ridiculous attempt at fairness, where each stock is treated as though it were the same.
Sector exposure: The cruel categorization of investments, locking them into their designated silos.
Dividend Aristocrats: Companies that have, for reasons unfathomable, consistently raised their dividends for at least 25 years.
Drawdown: A painful reminder of the financial abyss, the fall from a previous high to an inevitable low.
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2025-11-10 02:33