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With the markets off to a hot start so far this year, it’s only natural to think things just might be getting a little toppy.

I get it—and the truth is, this market is not without the risk of a short-term pullback.

Here’s the good news: if this possibility has you worried, there are a few closed-end funds (CEFs) out there that are perfectly designed for this risk. And they’re trading at attractive valuations, while paying big dividends, too. We’ll delve into one particular ticker a little further on. It’s a “goldilocks” fund that yields a steady 7.3% and charts a steady course through any volatility we might hit in the near term.… Read more

A recession is on the way—and stocks are … rallying? It makes zero sense on the surface, but there is good reason for the bounce we’ve seen this week. And we’re going to play it with a 7.3%-paying fund that’s set to roll higher with a recovering market.

No, we’re not talking about an index fund like the SPDR S&P 500 Trust ETF (SPY). My colleague Brett Owens calls SPY “America’s ticker” for good reason: pretty well everyone owns it!

Instead we’re going with a fund that pays us a 7.3% dividend today. That’s more than 4-times SPY’s meager 1.7% payout.… Read more

Plenty of folks are starting to look toward the new year, and I’m getting a lot of questions about my outlook for high-yield closed-end funds (CEFs) for the rest of ’22 and into ’23.

Of course, no one has a crystal ball when it comes to CEFs, stocks or the economy in the short run, but my take is that we’ll likely see continued volatility in the back end of 2022, with better conditions in 2023, as the so-called “terminal rate” of the Fed’s hiking cycle comes into view.

Luckily, there are CEFs out there called covered-call funds that are purpose-built for this environment, handing us safe 7%+ dividends that actually get stronger when volatility picks up.… Read more

By now you’ve likely heard that September is the worst month for stocks. It’s all over the media! But September is also a great time to buy a unique type of dividend fund that cashes in when volatility rears up (these funds will pay you blockbuster yields north of 7%, too!).

I’m talking about a special type of closed-end fund (CEF) called a covered-call fund, which makes more money every time the market panics. They then turn that cash over to us in the form of a dividend that crushes anything you’d get on a blue-chip stock or Treasury.

Don’t let the jargon-y name throw you.… Read more

Today we’re going to look at how we can play the market’s “fear gauge”—known as the VIX, for a 7.5% dividend that’s as steady as they come.

As you can guess, the VIX has been on the rise this year as the Fed-induced market selloff has deepened:

Fear Gauge Rises. A Plus for Our Dividends?

You can’t outright buy the VIX, and even if you could, you wouldn’t get any dividends from it. But there is an asset class that uses the higher volatility the VIX is showing us to generate extra cash, resulting in a higher (and safer) income stream for you: closed-end funds (CEFs) that sell covered-call options.… Read more

Crypto is a mess, and many (former) crypto fans are finally realizing that shares of companies that make goods and services people actually want—and pay dividends—are the place to be.

Of course, that’s no secret to those of us who know about closed-end funds (CEFs), many of which hold these companies and pay us rich dividends, often yielding north of 7%. To us, crypto is just the latest “investment” that held out the promise of building wealth faster than “boring” stocks ever could—and failed to deliver.

You might have even heard that crypto is a great inflation hedge. Anyone who bought Bitcoin based on that idea is now struggling with 71%+ inflation as their money literally disappears before their eyes!… Read more

While the pundits continue to (unsuccessfully) try to call the bottom of this Fed-spooked market, we CEF investors are doing what we always do: collecting our 7%+ dividends as we patiently move through to brighter days.

In fact, we’re doing more than that: we’re making some careful long-term buys as our fellow CEF investors—a conservative lot if there ever was one—toss out funds that are actually well suited to the higher-rate world we’re moving into.

I want to talk about one such fund today: it does something that has a lot of appeal in a market like this—it keeps you invested in the S&P 500, but with a twist: it hands you an outsized income stream that actually grows more stable as volatility picks up.… Read more

In a plunging market like this one, it’s critical to play the long game. For us closed-end fund (CEF) investors, that means staying invested, because we simply do not want to be out of the market when the (inevitable!) bounce comes.

More important, we need to keep our income streams rolling in. They’ve never been more critical than they are now. And CEFs are throwing off some very healthy payouts these days, with the average CEF yielding north of 7% as I write this.

But there are a few things we can do to further reinforce our dividends and tone down our portfolio’s volatility.… Read more