"As a complete beginner, I particularly value your 'holistic' view of the factors impacting markets. Understanding what is going on certainly helps me to ride the ups and downs with more faith than fear!

"Nearing retirement, I want to keep a portion of my investments in high income equity funds, both UK and global. I see references to "historic yields" but what does this mean in practice? Over what period is the history taken? How does current performance correlate with the historic, if at all, and is there anywhere I can find current yield data? Thanks for your help."

David Fuller's view Thanks for the feedback and for questions that are certain to be of interest to a number of subscribers who are either retired or in the latter stages of their careers.

Also, your modesty becomes you but remember, we are all students of the markets and you have probably seen enough wide-of-the-mark high-profile forecasts over the years not to feel daunted in the company of so-called professionals. After all, you can bring to the analytical table an interested and open mind, common sense and life wisdom.

Regarding your questions, I assume "historic yields" means just that but I do not know the context. You can find current yields in the FT or any other financial newspaper.

More importantly, you and many other somewhat older subscribers are right to be interested in yield. I bought Royal Dutch Shell's UK-listed B-shares recently because they yielded over 6% and energy is a Fullermoney investment theme. There are high-yield funds but I am increasingly reluctant to pay the additional fees. Why not cherry pick by looking at their top-10 holdings and checking their performance in the Chart Library for promising bases and consistent trends?

With high-yield equities I want a promising chart, decent balance sheet, leverage to the global economy and proven growth potential. For instance, you will probably know that I also have an investment position in FXC LN, the China Tracker. It's biggest holding is China Mobile (941 HK, also listed in the USA) (weekly & daily). It looks to be breaking up out of an extended base formation; yields 3.45% and has raised its dividend by a third over the last 5 years. It has a strong balance sheet, good growth prospects and should have plenty of upside potential over the medium to longer term.

In the same sector and if yield is your primary concern, you can get 5% in Vodafone and this 10-year chart shows the potential for share performance during the next significant bull run. France Telecom, which you may have noted from a recent email, currently yields 8.53%. The tradeoff is that Vodafone is unlikely to have the same growth potential as China Mobile and France Telecom, with even less growth potential, is stretching to pay its current dividend. However the Company apparently "guaranteed" it for the next three years in a recent statement.

Lastly, since many subscribers are rightly interested in higher-yielding equities, particularly those with the potential to go on increasing their dividends, why not share the better ideas on this important subject with the Collective? After all, it is a big, big topic and no one has the time to compile it all on their own. Of particular interest, I suggest, would be shares or articles on the same, with proven records of dividend increases. Increasingly, I suspect, we will find these in the global economy's growth regions. However, there will also be a growing number of candidates in the OECD countries, more often than not among companies leveraged to the global economy. We appear to be moving on from the bad old days when self-serving managements spoke of dividends as the "inefficient use of capital." Inefficient for whom?