HYP #1 - How to select High Yield Portfolio shares

In my first article I introduced the High Yield Portfolio concept and its principal rules to Stockopedia readers, especially those who may not have been aware of it from my many years of writing about  the approach elsewhere. This week and for the next few weeks I’ll go deeper into my share selection methods for the strategy and examine in more detail the reasoning behind the rules I devised to govern the construction and management of an HYP.

Just to recap very briefly, the HYP is an equity income approach but unlike the great majority of share investing styles out there, it embodies the radical view of abandoning any attempt to score capital gains. Any gains that do result, and it happens that they have over the years, are incidental and not at all what this is about. HYPers who do not need the income immediately simply reinvest dividends in their portfolio until they do, thus making it suitable for just about anyone from birth on.

I designed the construction rules with deliberate simplicity in mind so that just about anyone with a reasonable understanding of shares can follow them. I dislike complexity, believing it adds nothing and...