When it comes to closed-end funds (CEFs), many investors are always focused on one thing: the dividend.

It makes sense: CEFs pay 8.5% yields, on average, according to data from my CEF Insider service.

But sometimes it pays to look beyond those big payouts, because by doing so, you could find a CEF with a track record so strong that its total return (dividends and gains combined) beats that of a CEF with a high yield.

I don’t know about you, but I’m willing to take more of my return in the form of price gains if it means, say, doubling my money in five years!… Read more

Worried about a market pullback?

Let’s discuss seven sturdy dividends with yields up to 8%. These are “low beta” stocks which means they stand tall when the market sinks. Low beta stocks may still go down, but they tend to regress less than average.

And generally speaking, the lower the beta, the more cushion to the downside. The lower a stock’s beta, the less volatile (the less it moves) compared to a benchmark (like the S&P 500). It’s really easy:

Beta more than 1 = more volatile than the market.

Beta less than 1 = less volatile than the market.

Then we want to pair low beta with high dividend yields.… Read more

Volatility is back! And we contrarians know what to do: Get ready to buy.

And we don’t have to try to time the depths of the next selloff, either, because the three 7%+ paying, “volatility-loving” dividends we’re going to talk about are perfect for this market.

They’re all closed-end funds (CEFs) that see their cash streams grow when markets get skittish. Their secret? They sell covered-call options on their portfolios.

This is a smart, low-risk way they can generate extra income—and send it our way as 7%+ dividends. That’s because these funds charge investors a “premium” for the “option” to buy their holdings at a fixed time and date in the future.… Read more

Monthly bills are no problem for careful contrarian readers banking 8.8% yields in monthly divvies. Let’s discuss this rare but excellent dividend breed, the company or fund that pays monthly instead of quarterly.

Only 6% of dividend payers dish monthly. The rest are quarterly or annually, which will likely not be in time to cover your upcoming cell phone bill.

My monthly email from carrier Verizon arrives in a day or two. Another $267.26 will be debited from my account automatically on the 20th of August.

Fortunately, Verizon notes that there is “nothing I need to do” thanks to AutoPay.… Read more

Here’s something most people forget about interest rates: The Fed does not call all the shots here.

This means that, in the coming months, we may see a setup where the Fed’s rate—the “overnight” rate at which financial institutions lend to each other—and the 10-year Treasury rate (pacesetter for business and consumer loans) part company.

Today we’re going to dig into a “stealth” 5.7%-paying stock that’s a perfect contrarian play on this situation. This one pays us every month, too.

Fed Cuts … and Rates Soar!?

I say that this “rate split” is possible because, well, it’s already happened in the last few months.… Read more

The AI boom still has plenty of room to run—but investing purely in AI stocks is not the best way to tap into it.

NVIDIA (NVDA) and friends yield next to nothing! And these are crowded trades.

Luckily for us, there’s another way to get in. Bargains are still available in the corner of the market we’ll get into below—as are 10%+ dividends. It’s all tied into AI’s voracious appetite for electricity. Yes, utilities are part of this play, but we want to go a little bit deeper and zero in on stocks specifically tied into nuclear power.

We’re going to tap into those through high-yield closed-end funds (CEFs) that both trade at discounts and send huge payouts our way, too.… Read more

The Nasdaq has been rallying nonstop since April. Let’s discuss three payouts up to 11.2% that play the rally.

The catalyst is the “rise of the machines” with companies replacing expensive humans with cheaper robots and AI tools. Hiring numbers are down and (paradoxically to some) the Nasdaq continues to levitate higher.

This summer heater in tech stocks is no surprise to us contrarians. The Naz tech giants are enjoying expanding profit margins! Amazon (AMZN) CEO Andy Jassy recently admitted the company’s workforce will shrink, replaced by AI. This is bad for those who work at Amazon, but great for those who own AMZN.… Read more

By now you’ve no doubt heard the argument that AI is a bubble, and there’s no way Big Tech will make a significant profit from it, given the massive amounts of cash they’ve already piled in.

That take is just plain wrong—truth is, the tech giants are already booking profits from AI. And we closed-end fund (CEF) investors can grab our share at a discount—and at dividend rates running all the way up to 13%, too.

This next chart tells us straight-up why the “AI-is-unprofitable” theory is off the mark.

Look at the far left of this chart and you see that communication-services stocks led in profit growth in the second quarter of 2025.… Read more

Holding low-yielding shares? Here’s how to boost dividends up to 35%—no buying or selling needed.

We’ll use boring ol’ SPY—SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY)—as our first example. The fund yields a sleepy 1.1%, yet it’s the most owned ticker in America.

Here’s how we fix SPY’s yield problem.

On Monday, I received an email from OptionSignals, the timing system I developed for Contrarian Outlook readers who write covered calls and sell puts to generate income. OptionSignals tells us when it is a promising time to write calls or sell puts on an index, fund or individual stock.… Read more

I have to laugh when I hear the phrase “return to the office.”

I mean, COVID started more than five years ago. With the turnover in Corporate America since then, we can hardly call what’s happening now a “return.”

Most of those “returning” aren’t even the same people!

Nonetheless, the, shall we say, revenge, of the office is real. My wife and I saw it firsthand when we went to an open house here in Sacramento a few months ago. Staring into the front room, labeled “home office,” my wife said, “Programmer.”

“They’re hoping for a rentback,” said the realtor.… Read more