Author Archive: Michael Foster

We’ve got a very nice buy setup in 7%-paying closed-end funds (CEFs) in front of us. Few people realize it.

It stems from the fact that, while stocks have taken a breather after booking strong gains so far this year, many CEFs are lagging more than they should be. The cause? Overdone investor fear around, you guessed it, AI.

That dour mood has set up a particularly interesting dynamic in CEFs holding US stocks:

The chart above, from my CEF Insider service, shows that these funds’ average return based on their market prices (in green) is up about 7.2% so far this year.… Read more

There are hundreds of closed-end funds (CEFs) out there, and almost all of them have an investor they’re perfect for.

I say “almost” because there are a few that are, in my view, not appropriate for any investor. These CEFs are highly speculative and, for the most part, don’t provide a dividend. That flies in the face of a key reason to own CEFs in the first place: high payouts! These funds typically yield around 8%.

We also generally want to be wary of new CEFs with little performance history. When you combine that with a lack of payout focus, you can find yourself taking on some very significant risk.… Read more

The market has served us up a tidy opportunity on a closed-end fund (CEF) yielding an eye-popping 13.1%.

What’s more, this fund is oversold, at a 12.1% discount to net asset value (NAV).

Before I name this CEF, let me explain why this opportunity is in front of us. And since the fund in question holds corporate bonds, we need to start with interest rates.

It’s not news that since the end of the pandemic, the Federal Reserve has focused on fighting inflation. Whether or not it’s brought enough firepower to that fight is something we can debate, but the end result is that borrowing costs have been going up.… Read more

Let’s break down this cloud of pessimism hanging over the economy. As far as I can tell, it’s mainly coming from two sources:

1. The bond market.
2. The labor market.

Concerns around both are overblown, and that’s been a plus for us at my CEF Insider service. It’s pushed out the discounts to net asset value (NAV) on these funds, setting up some nice buying opportunities over the last few months.

It’s increased the dividend yields on some of these funds, too. In some cases near double digits.

General American Investors (GAM), one of the more popular equity CEFs, tells the tale here.… Read more

Ten-year Treasuries yield 5.3%. We’re still not buying.

Because the truth is, that 5.3% yield is an illusion, for two reasons.

First, inflation is at 3.4%. Knock that off your 5.3% yield and you’re left with a real return of just 1.9%.

And second, if the government continues to print money to meet its obligations (likely!), it could fuel more inflation, and higher bond yields. That increases the likelihood that anyone buying a Treasury today will sell at a loss if they do so before maturity.

So where does an income investor turn?

Two words: US stocks.

Trouble is, the S&P 500 yields a mere 1%.… Read more

Joblessness rose last month. And stocks jumped on the news.

It’s weird. And it’s giving us a rare chance to pick up a well-funded 6.8% dividend for 12.3% off its “regular” price.

This deal exists because the fund behind that healthy payout—a tech-focused closed-end fund (CEF) called the BlackRock Technology and Private Equity Term Trust (BTX)—is smack in the middle of a very profitable setup.

That is, both its price on the stock market (in purple below) and the value of its underlying portfolio (its net asset value, or NAV, in orange) are soaring this year:

BTX Skyrockets in 2026 …

The fact that both the portfolio and market price can move independently of each other is a unique feature of CEFs.… Read more

Our favorite 9.5% dividends are on sale, and very few investors realize it.

It’s a striking situation because a payout that size handily beats a 10-year Treasury. Sure, the 10-year pays about 5% now. And it’ll pay you that for a decade, until you get your principal back.

But that’s still only a bit more than half of what these 9.5% payers—called closed-end funds (CEFs)—pay on average. Plus, unlike a Treasury, we can buy these funds’ portfolios for less than they’re actually worth, putting the potential for big upside on the table, too.

In fact, because so many investors are currently dazzled by those Treasury yields, we have a unique chance to buy our favorite CEFs at an unusually deep 7.8% average discount (more on that in a moment).… Read more

Let’s go ahead and break down a recent “win” at my CEF Insider service: an unloved fund that handed us a 48% total return in 10 months!

Why? Because this call went our way for plenty of reasons—and we can take those reasons and “convert” them to strategies that can give us the kind of portfolio we all want: one that delivers healthy dividend income and strong price upside. 

The fund in question: the Columbia Seligman Premium Technology Growth Fund (STK), which returned that 48% from our buy call in the November 2025 CEF Insider to our sell in the recently released September issue.… Read more

Today I want to talk about something we don’t touch on very often in these columns: an obscure (yet highly profitable) situation called a “tender offer.”

I know the name sounds a bit stiff. But if one comes along when you hold a closed-end fund (CEF)—particularly a CEF you bought when it was particularly oversold—wow.

You can find yourself sitting on a fast gain as well as a high dividend payout (as I write this, the average CEF yields around 9%).

As we’ll see in the case of one CEF below, a tender offer can take a fund purchased at an 11.5% discount and let the shareholder cash in a chunk of their holding at nearly full value.… Read more

This latest shift toward interest rate hikes has sent income investors into a tizzy. That’s great for us, because they’re tossing out one terrific fund kicking out a 7.8% dividend that’s grown.

This smartly run corporate-bond fund is now on the table for 11.9% below the value of its portfolio. That not only positions this fund (a closed-end fund, or CEF, to be exact) for future upside—it helps cushion its portfolio, letting us collect its 7.8% payout in peace as the Fed raises rates.

I know that may sound strange: Usually higher rates are bad for bonds, especially for funds chock full of bonds that pay out “old” rates that may be lower than the “new” interest rates likely to come.… Read more