Yield? confused on the topic

Hex said: "I'm sort of confused on the investing term "Yield". I know that it represents an annual income based on a certain percentage of a stock invesment, but am a bit unsure, how it is used? and what is the advantage/disadvantage of a negative/positive yield? Also I noticied when a stock is at an all time high it's yield usually lowers quite significently. Can someone please tell me what is the cause of this? or is it just overinflation of the stock?"

misterjover said: "Welcome aboard sir. You ask a good question. Basically, yield represents the annual rate of return on any investment in percent. Your gross earnings are the dollars that come from the investment before capital gains taxes are incurred, and of course, having a positive yield is what we all desire. When a stock is at its all time high, and you purchase it, odds are, you will yield very little because its growth potential has diminished because stocks sometimes tend to go downhill once they have reached their peak. However, do not eliminate the possibility that the stock can continue up its path and create new highs. [URL=http://stockcharts.com]check this out to learn about stockcharts[/URL] There is a place on that site that will help you with your technical analysis of stock charts and how to anticipate your yield based on past performance (which by the way will never guarantee future results)."

Chefskeez6 said: "i checked out the link you gave, kind of interesting. I still don't really understand how to get much out of charts. i mean yeah i can recognize different chart patterns after the fact but i still have hard time grasping the idea of predicting a future stock price based on a chart."