Time to Profit From the 8% “Wallflowers” of the Dividend World

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Time to Profit From the 8% “Wallflowers” of the Dividend World

I’ve dedicated my career to closed-end funds (CEFs) because in a way, these high-yield investments saved my life: Using these funds to get an 8% income stream from my portfolio gave me the confidence I needed to quit my academic job well over a decade ago.

I started writing about CEFs after that, mostly out of surprise and confusion: Why weren’t these reliable income plays—which yield 8.2% on average now—more popular?

Well, after over a decade of talking to economists, bankers, fund managers and other experts, I’ve come to realize they should be more popular, and that they probably would be after a big shock to markets made them irresistible.… Read more

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The “Sleepy” 8%-Yielding Corner of the Market Is Finally Waking Up

I’ve been covering closed-end funds (CEFs) for more than a decade. Through that time (and still today!) I’ve been shocked at how many people sleepwalk right past these incredible income plays, and the big dividends (and upside) they offer.

CEFs are publicly traded and highly regulated, like mutual funds or ETFs. The key difference? Big dividends! The 500 or so CEFs out there yield 8.4% on average, and they’ve historically have yielded 7%+.

They work by investing in the kinds of assets most of us own already—stocks, bonds and real estate mostly. They then hand out the resulting profits as dividends.… Read more

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My Outlook for Tech Stocks (and One 6.2%-Paying Fund) in 2024

The first week of 2024 was a rough one for stocks—and that, oddly enough, suggests we might see a good year for stocks in 2024.

But as we’ll discuss below, recent market moves also suggest some parts of the technology sector are starting to look just a little overbought now—especially one 6.2%-yielding tech-focused closed-end fund (CEF).

I know that’s a lot to lead off with, so let’s break it down.

A week and a half before Christmas, and before last year’s Santa Claus rally, I wrote that we didn’t want a Santa Claus rally to end ’23. That’s because these year-end market bounces have historically led to the following year to be weaker for the markets.… Read more

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These 9% Dividends Crush a Dangerous Investing Myth

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: “If you buy a high-yielding investment, your big yield won’t last because they’ll cut dividends.”

I hear it a lot, so let’s talk about two funds that haven’t cut distributions in the last decade. In fact, these closed-end funds (CEFs), yielding 9% and 10%, respectively, have done the opposite, growing payouts and dropping special dividends, too!

High-Yield CEF No. 1: A “One-Click” Way to Get a Growing 9% Payout From Tech

One of my favorite CEFs comes from the biggest fund manager on earth: BlackRock, with more than $10 trillion of assets under management.… Read more

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These Amazing Funds “Magnify” Your Portfolio’s Growth (With 7%+ Dividends)

Not many people know this, but you can actually “magnify” the return of a regular stock—just by holding it through a closed-end fund (CEF)!

That’s in addition to getting a much bigger dividend than the typical S&P 500 stock dribbles out: 7%+ payouts are, of course, common in the CEF space.

So how does our CEF “gain magnifier” work?

It comes down to what at first blush seems to be a rather obscure fact: CEFs (which trade on the market, just like stocks or ETFs), generally have a fixed number of shares for the entirety of their lives. That means their market price can be different from their per-share net asset values (NAV, or the value of the stocks they hold in their portfolios).… Read more

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Why I’m Calling for Double-Digit Gains (and 9%+ Dividends) From CEFs This Year

From what I can see, this year is setting up to be another 2016—and that’s likely to hand us a buying opportunity in our favorite high-yield investments: closed-end funds (CEFs).

Here’s what I mean: after the market’s fast run higher in January, things have stalled out a bit. After the year we put in last year, this means we’re still left with some decent discounts to net asset value (NAV) on CEFs, as well as high yields (as CEF veterans know, payouts of 7% and up are common in the space, and most CEFs pay dividends monthly, too).

Right now, for example, our CEF Insider portfolio boasts a number of double-digit yields, reaching up to 12.3%.… Read more

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Buying This Fund Is Like Buying Apple With a 12.1% Dividend

We’ve seen a big bounce (and 12%+ dividends!) in one particular type of closed-end fund (CEF) this year—and all of my buy indicators suggest this profitable play is still in its early stages.

Specifically, I’m talking about tech-focused CEFs—which we’re getting a nice second chance to buy thanks to last week’s earnings whiffs from the likes of Apple (AAPL) and Alphabet (GOOGL).

Buying a tech CEF is like buying an ETF that focuses on technology, but with two key differences:

  • Big dividends: the CEF we’re going to analyze today yields 12.1%—and it pays dividends monthly, too. You and I know that both of these things are unheard of in the world of “regular” stocks and funds.

… Read more

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This “ETF-Beater” Portfolio Yields 9.7% (With Big Upside in ’23)

Rarely do we get a buying opportunity in high-yielding closed-end funds (CEFs) like the one we have now. Thanks to the selloff, many CEFs trade at deep discounts and pay outsized yields upwards of 9% today.

With this market rally likely still in its infancy, we still have time to act here. But we don’t want to wait long, as this bounce has already started to whittle away CEFs’ discounts.

I’ve got three perfect funds for us to target below. This trio is intriguing because, taken together, they basically mimic an S&P 500 ETF, but with two key differences:

  • They pay a 9.7% average dividend, so you’re getting more of your return in cash than you would if you bought an S&P 500 index fund (which would get you a mere 1.7% payout).

… Read more

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How to Collect $132,000 in Dividends on a Million Dollars

While vanilla investors worry along with the herd, we contrarians are buying. And oh, the yields we have available!

As I write to you today, I’m staring at no less than 29 income funds that yield more than 8%. Twenty-nine paying more than eight!

For retirees with a million-dollar portfolio, this is $80,000 per year in dividend income. Actually, more, because some of these funds pay up to 13%.

Why would we sell when this is the best time to buy in years? I explained this while yapping with Moe Ansari on his Market Wrap program. Moe asked me: “We hear all the ‘Doom and Gloomers’ out there.… Read more

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When CEFs Do This, Big Profits Usually Follow (and 7%+ Dividends, Too)

If you’re like me, you regularly hear from friends who brag about how they’ve successfully timed the market in the past. What these folks will never tell you is the number of times they’ve missed the boat!

Take last week, when millions of folks were parked on the sidelines, terrified (thanks to scaremongering media reports) that the July CPI print would come in worse than expected, triggering a selloff.

Of course, we now know that the exact opposite happened—and I’m guessing you won’t hear from your friends who failed to grab that bounce!

Look, when other folks do manage to pull off this trick, I salute them.… Read more

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