I'm keeping it extra simple today.

Down markets are gifts to dividend investors.

Consider Home Depot $HD : From 2000 - 2013, shares went no where and suffered a major downtrend. On the surface it appeared to be dead money.

However, the quarterly dividend continued to grow at a healthy clip, rising from .04 to .39 over the same period. Today the distribution is $2.09 . Seeds become trees for the patient dividend-growth investor.

Keep going.

I'm long HD.