The 5 Dumbest High-Yield Funds (Ranked Worst to Just “Bad”)

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The 5 Dumbest High-Yield Funds (Ranked Worst to Just “Bad”)

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) shattered growth records in 2017, with inflows topping $464 billion last year. The global ETF market now boasts more than $4.5 trillion in assets, and a large part of the appeal has been driven by dirt-cheap fees.

But many of these fund’s fees are “cheap for a reason.” We’ll talk about five today that lure investors in with appealing current yields – but then proceed to dump their dumb money out the back door.

These five funds may have sweet dividend yields, but they have produced sour total return results thanks to one fundamental flaw or another.

ETRACS Linked to the Wells Fargo Business Development Company Index ETN (BDCS)
Dividend Yield: 8.7%

One of the most basic appeals of the exchange-traded fund is the cheap diversification they provide.…
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These 3 Funds Will Crash 20% in 2018 (Sell Now)

I usually don’t recommend shorting a closed-end fund (CEF), but if I were to do so, the 3 I’m about to show you would top my list.

I don’t like shorting CEFs for two simple reasons: first, you’re responsible for paying out the dividends on a shorted stock. So if a CEF pays a 10% yield, you have to pay out 10% while shorting it. No thanks!

Second, the CEF market is extremely irrational. For this reason, CEFs can remain overvalued for a long time, meaning you’ll need to short for far too long before you get your payouts.

Still, there are some CEFs that are so absurdly overbought that shorting becomes really tempting.…
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These 10%+ Dividends Will Get Chopped in 2018

I usually write about the beauty of closed-end funds (CEFs) and how we can tap them for yields of 7% or more while also beating the S&P 500 index.

Today I want to talk about the dogs of the CEF world.

And there are plenty of dogs to talk about—they’ll kill your returns while promising big income streams that aren’t what they seem.

It’s a shame, because a lot of these rotten CEFs attract first-level investors who don’t look beyond the dividend yield. As a result, these folks often get buyer’s remorse when they discover those big dividends were actually hiding a grim—and riskier—reality.…
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