Go For the Dividends, Says Strategist

There's nearly $3.5 trillion dollars waiting to be invested in the markets, according to Frederic Dickson, chief market strategist of D.A. Davidson. So what's keeping it out? And what should investors do in the meantime?

"There's money on the sidelines," he told CNBC. "What we lack is conviction, and that dark cloud of the credit freeze...still hangs over the market."

While the wait continues for that conviction to return, Dickson urges investors to look at advantages of stocks other than price appreciation.

"I think investors are going to start looking at the dividend side of the equation," he said. "That means companies with above-market yields, that have a history of growing their dividends."

He's talking about Johnson and Johnson, Eli Lilly, Kimberly Clark, and Pepsico.

"Those, I think, are going to hold up pretty well," he said.