This 8%-Payer Crushes ETFs (and We Get to Buy for 84 Cents on the Dollar)

Our Archive

Search completed

On the surface, investing through an index fund sounds great. It’s simple, cheap and, as you’ve likely heard over and over, few active managers beat their benchmarks anyway.

But we closed-end fund (CEF) investors know better. Truth is, there are lots of CEFs out there that beat their benchmarks while throwing off healthy dividends north of 8%.

And when you step beyond the world of stocks, into areas like corporate bonds, REITs and municipal bonds, benchmark-beaters are the norm with CEFs. That’s because those markets, which are much smaller than the stock market, give a savvy manager lots of advantages—like a well-stacked contact book—that a “robotic” index fund just can’t match.… Read more

Read More

Don’t lament the lack of a Santa Claus rally this year, because it comes with a bright silver lining: we dividend investors have more time to pick up big yields on the cheap.

Here’s why: America’s economy is still growing, with analysts booking forecasts for 3.7% earnings growth in the fourth quarter of 2022. What’s more, sales for S&P 500 companies are up 10%, and earnings have been rising all year.

Yet the market is still downbeat.

In other words, share prices are divorced from reality, and it’s only a matter of time before they correct. However, given the year we’ve had, it could still be a while before investors develop an appetite for stocks again.… Read more

Read More

This selloff has gone on seemingly forever, and I’m hearing from more investors who are feeling nervous.

I understand completely. Days of red on the indexes are tough on all of us, myself first and foremost. But the key thing to keep in mind as the world seems to be spinning out of control is that when times like these come along, our CEF strategy proves its worth, for two reasons:

  • Our CEF dividends are helping us through the correction, as they have for all the pullbacks we’ve been through since we launched my CEF Insider service in 2017. Our portfolio yields 8.3% today, and 17 of our 23 holdings pay dividends monthly, so those payouts arrive in line with your bills.

Read more

Read More

We need to talk about a mistake almost every investor makes—and it’s a particularly easy trap to fall into today.

That would be letting the headlines push us to make investing decisions out of fear. Below, we’re going to dive into a scenario where doing so could have resulted in 30% in losses and missed profits in the last 12 months. And that’s before we even consider the dividends that would have been left on the table.

How Letting Inflation Fears Rattle You Could Cost You Big

Let’s consider today’s inflation scare, which feels new, but in fact was just starting to make the news a year ago.… Read more

Read More

We’re seeing signs every day that this pouting market is way oversold—and contrarians that we are, we’re going to work this sentiment to grab stout closed-end funds (CEF) paying dividends yielding north of 7% that have been unfairly beaten down.

Here’s my take on how far off-base today’s investor mood is. In a moment, we’ll dive into 2 CEFs yielding up to 8.5% we can buy to cash in.

  1. Inflation is not hurting corporate profits. If anything, profits are going up across the board. Many companies have seen their profits—and profit margins—rise in the earnings season that’s currently underway.
  2. Supply chains have challenged businesses, but they haven’t caused the economy to grind to a halt.

Read more

Read More

Our man Jay Powell is talking a little more about raising rates. Right on cue, stocks have dropped, and dividend yields have popped!

Our contrarian buying opportunity is here.

But wait. Even with the latest pullback, the yields on the popular names of the S&P 500 are still only 1.3%. And how can you call the S&P 500 cheap when it still trades at a nosebleed P/E of 37?

You can’t.

But lucky for us, there are always overlooked assets out there. To find them, we’re going to skip the S&P and go with another acronym: “C-E-F,” for closed-end fund.

If you’ve heard of CEFs, you know that they’re famous for huge dividends.… Read more

Read More

You and I both know there’s a problem with the sugar high the stock market’s been on. Does it mean we should dump some of our beloved dividend stocks and try to buy them back at lower prices?

We’ll talk income strategies and market timing in a minute. First, let’s talk about these concerning behaviors exhibited by America’s odd couple, Mr. and Mrs. Market.

First up, we know a correction is coming. When a group of folks on a Reddit message board can drive one stock—GameStop (GME)—up 1,700%+ in a month, you know the market has become a bit unhinged.… Read more

Read More

I sure hope you haven’t listened to the bleating pundits begging us to sell everything ahead of Election Day. These talking heads don’t realize that, historically speaking, cash has already turned to trash.

It’s at times like these—when everyone is panicking and another big selloff seems right around the corner—that fortunes are made. And they’re not made by being out of stocks for the six months when they tend to rally (November 1 to May 1).

I know this sounds strange, but hear me out. Because we’ve got a shot at big gains (and dividends!) setting up our portfolios before E-Day comes and goes.… Read more

Read More

The convenience of a one-click ETF is tempting, but in times like these, buying one can seriously cap your upside—and cause you to leave serious dividend cash on the table, too.

I know that’s a controversial statement, with the millions of ETF fanboys and fangals out there, so let me explain why you do not want to pile into these vehicles during a bear market like this one.

I’ll start with a very popular ETF, the Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF (VYM). True to its name, it holds the stocks that pop into most people’s minds when they think about dividends, like Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Procter & Gamble (PG), Verizon Communications (VZ) and Pfizer (PFE).Read more

Read More

Today we’re going to dive into a question subscribers to our CEF Insider service often ask: what happens to a closed-end fund’s dividend when stocks take a tumble?

The answer is coming up shortly (and if you’re at all worried about this levitating market suddenly snapping back, you’re going to like what I have to show you).

Then I’m going to reveal one 6.6%-paying fund whose management is dialed in to market swings and know how to protect their investors’ income when things get rough.

How do I know? Because they did just that in the 2008-09 crisis.

More on that shortly.… Read more

Read More

Categories