I think maybe you should go back to first principles.
Why does a share of a company have any value? Well, if you buy 10% of the stock of widget co, you presumably get 10% of it's earnings, be that through dividends, share buy backs, etc. It's stock price will reflect that. It also reflects the future potential growth.
For some companies, (utilities, etc) there isn't much future growth so the price is mostly a function of it's ability to pay out dividends. For a tech startup, they're not paying out dividends any time soon and the price reflects it's potential to someday be BigCo with massive earnings and massive dividends.
There will always be active investors trying to beat the market, and they aid in price discovery.
So you think that active investors would shift much more towards trying to make money from dividends, rather than from speculation on the future share price?
No, I think active investors make money from trying to find over/under priced equities, and the value of those stocks is inherently a function of current and future returns.
Why does a share of a company have any value? Well, if you buy 10% of the stock of widget co, you presumably get 10% of it's earnings, be that through dividends, share buy backs, etc. It's stock price will reflect that. It also reflects the future potential growth.
For some companies, (utilities, etc) there isn't much future growth so the price is mostly a function of it's ability to pay out dividends. For a tech startup, they're not paying out dividends any time soon and the price reflects it's potential to someday be BigCo with massive earnings and massive dividends.
There will always be active investors trying to beat the market, and they aid in price discovery.