The Globe and Mail reports in its Monday edition that investors are keen to know what works in the stock market. Globe columnist Normal Rothery writes that for him, his model Stable Dividend portfolio can beat the market. It starts by looking at the 300 largest stocks on the Toronto Stock Exchange by market capitalization. Collected together, the 300 stocks gained an average of 8.6 per cent annually over the 25 years to the end of 2023 when put into an equally weighted portfolio and rebalanced annually. The Stable Dividend portfolio goes a step further than rebalancing. It looks through the dividend payers from the largest 300 stocks and picks the 20 with the lowest volatilities over the prior 260 days. The Stable Dividend portfolio gained an average of 10.9 per cent annually over the 25 years to the end of 2023 when rebalanced annually. The covered-dividend version of the Stable Dividend portfolio starts with the largest 300 stocks, narrows in on the dividend payers with coverage ratios of more than one (their earnings more than cover their dividends) and picks the 20 with the lowest volatilities over the prior 260 days. The covered-dividend portfolio gained an equally satisfying average of 10.8 per cent annually.