My 5 Favorite CEFs for 2025 with Yields Up to 13.7%

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My 5 Favorite CEFs for 2025 with Yields Up to 13.7%

Are higher interest rates and lower bond prices a sure thing for 2025? Mainstream financial pundits say yes.

Which gives us thoughtful contrarians pause. Their narrative against bonds is assumed. When this happens, markets tend to move in the opposite direction of conventional wisdom.

Which means we should bet with bonds. At least in the near term to start the new year. Let’s watch bonds rally and surprise everyone except for us. The “Trump is bad for bonds” trade may eventually be correct, but my hunch again is that this “surefire” call is early.

For all the recent commotion, the 10-year Treasury yield bounces between 3.3% and 5%, with an even narrower 3.6% to 4.7% range recently.… Read more

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My 5 Favorite CEFs for 2025 with Yields Up to 13.7%

Are higher interest rates and lower bond prices a sure thing for 2025? Mainstream financial pundits say yes.

Which gives us thoughtful contrarians pause. Their narrative against bonds is assumed. When this happens, markets tend to move in the opposite direction of conventional wisdom.

Which means we should bet with bonds. At least in the near term to start the new year. Let’s watch bonds rally and surprise everyone except for us. The “Trump is bad for bonds” trade may eventually be correct, but my hunch again is that this “surefire” call is early.

For all the recent commotion, the 10-year Treasury yield bounces between 3.3% and 5%, with an even narrower 3.6% to 4.7% range recently.… Read more

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This 10.4% Dividend Is Our Top Contrarian Play on “Trump 2.0”

Most people think inflation will rise in a second Trump term—we can see it in the jump in 10-year Treasury rates over the last few weeks.

But that trade is getting just a little bit crowded—and we contrarians are going to take advantage of that with a 10.4%-yielding closed-end fund (CEF) that’s come back to earth as a result.

This situation reminds me a little of October 2023, when investors were also betting on “inflation forever.” We didn’t buy it then, either. Instead I named the DoubleLine Yield Opportunities Fund (DLY), payer of a 9.5% yield at the time, as one of the top portfolio buys in my Contrarian Income Report service.… Read more

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My 5 “Secret” Tips for Grabbing 8% Dividends, 79% Returns

Interest rates are (finally!) set to fall. As they do, we’re going to bag bargain-priced 8%+ dividends from a pattern we can set our watches to at times like this.

I’m talking about the mainstream crowd’s habit of “reaching for yield” when Powell & Co. drop rates, eroding yields on CDs, Treasuries and the like.

As these investors go on the hunt for higher payouts, I expect them to flock to closed-end funds (CEFs), one of our favorite income plays, thanks to the 8%+ yields these funds kick out.

But of course, we need to make sure we’re front-running the crowd into the right CEFs: those with high, safe, and ideally monthly payouts, while sidestepping the many dogs out there.… Read more

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Tech Update: Best Dividend Tracking Tool Now Even Better

I have a pop payout quiz for you, my contrarian friend. Can you tell me how much dividend income you earned last week?

And if so, can you tell me how much you earned each day?

These details are now available in Income Calendar, the dividend tracking tool that we created in-house here at Contrarian Outlook. IC’s ability to project divvies down to the day tells us that:

  • We collected $1,844.75 last Monday.
  • Another $264.80 in divvies followed on Wednesday.
  • And our holiday week was capped off with $340.55 in income on Friday.

The tool took my newsletter portfolio as input—with tickers and sample share counts—and did the rest of the work.… Read more

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11 Simple Rules for 10%+ Dividends with Safe CEFs

If you don’t like these 8%, 9% and even 10%+ dividends, well, you’re not really an income investor.

That’s right. As I write, select closed-end funds (CEFs) yield 10.6%.

Ten. Point. Six. Per. Cent!

We contrarians are locking in yields up to nearly 11%. Here’s how, broken down in an 11-step playbook for these 8%, 9%, even 10.6% yields.

CEF Rule #1: Buy the Best 

Fixed-income behemoth DoubleLine runs some well-known big mutual funds and ETFs as well as smaller, lesser-known CEFs. There’s a raging dividend party in the ignored CEF corner of DoubleLine’s portfolio, with yields up to 10.6% via DoubleLine Income Solutions Fund (DSL).… Read more

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It’s Actually Easy to Market Time This 10.5% Dividend

DoubleLine Income Solutions (DSL) took its biannual trip to the bargain bin a few weeks ago. It was a short stay, as usual.

By mid-April, vanilla investors had worked themselves into a hysterical state. They somehow convinced themselves that the Federal Reserve was going to continue raising rates.

Let me repeat—they worried that, in an election year, the Fed was going to keep on hiking. Unlikely.

Even Bloomberg lamented that traders saw “no relief in sight for bonds.” A hopeless howl that piqued our contrarian interest. No doubt, relief was just around the corner.

Indeed it was in the form of Chairman Jay Powell and his soothing postgame pillow talk.… Read more

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11 Easy Rules for Dividends Up to 11% with Safe CEFs

If you don’t like these 8%, 9% and even 10%+ dividends, well, you’re not really an income investor.

That’s right. As I write, select closed-end funds (CEFs) yield 10.8%.

Ten. Point. Eight. Per. Cent!

We contrarians are locking in yields up to nearly 11%. When the market seas become choppy, we’ll stick to our script. Here it is, broken down in an 11-step playbook for these 8%, 9%, even 10.8% yields.

CEF Rule #1: Buy the Best 

Fixed-income behemoth DoubleLine runs some well-known big funds as well as smaller, lesser-known CEFs. There’s a raging dividend party in the ignored CEF corner of DoubleLine’s portfolio, with yields up to 10.8% via

DoubleLine Income Solutions Fund (DSL).… Read more

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11 Simple Rules for Terrific 12% Dividends via Safe CEFs

If you don’t like these 10% and 12% dividends, well, you’re not really an income investor.

That’s right. As I write, select closed-end funds (CEFs) yield 12.8%.

Twelve. Point. Eight. Per. Cent!

Vanilla “investors” are panicking. Sentiment has hit washout levels. A short-term bottom is near, or perhaps already in.

We contrarians are staying calm and locking in the 10% and 12% yields. When the market seas become choppy, we stick to our script. Here it is, broken down in a 11-step playbook for these 10.1% to 12.8% yields.

CEF Rule #1: Buy the Best 

Fixed-income behemoth DoubleLine runs some well-known big funds as well as smaller, lesser-known CEFs.… Read more

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The Maraschino Cherry of Bond Funds Yields 9.5%

“Do you have cherries?” my buddy Ralph asked over the phone.

It was January 2021. Sports bars here in California were closed, so we naturally turned our backyard into one.

“No,” I replied. And sighed in an honest admission. “Only beer. Lots of beer.”

“No problem. I got ‘em.”

My buddy also had a mini-keg of delicious old-fashioneds. His creations were dangerously delicious. He’d begun making and aging fine adult beverages to pass time in the pandemic.

And the maraschino cherries he brought played no small role in his cocktail’s critical acclaim.

Is it five o’clock yet? Just kidding (mostly). We are talking about maraschinos in a dividend column because we finally have some bond funds worth cherry picking.… Read more

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