Author Archive: Michael Foster

Let’s talk about this latest pop in Treasury yields and what it really means for those of us looking to save for (and generate reliable income in!) retirement.

Because the truth is, it means something completely different than what the mainstream media is trying to sell us. In fact, this situation sets up an opportunity for us to lock in high yields—I’m talking north of 6%—the longer it keeps up.

To be sure, the yield on long-term government debt is on the rise. At around 5.2% as of this writing, yields on 30-year Treasuries are now just below a high not seen in 19 years.… Read more

Today we’re going to look at a closed-end fund (CEF) that seemingly offers everything:

1. A 6.7%-yielding dividend that pays monthly.
2. A solid payout track record: This dividend has been delivered reliably for more than six years.
3. Terrific performance, to the tune of an 8.5% annualized return over the last decade.

And yet, this fund is a sell. If you own it, I recommend dumping it immediately.

I know that sounds a bit strange, so let me explain why it’s a risky investment, and how other funds like it are, as well.

Before I do, though, let me emphasize one thing: The managers of the GAMCO Global Gold, Natural Resources & Income Trust (GGN) are professional, qualified and good at what they do.… Read more

The media has been abuzz with fresh fears that the AI “bubble” is finally popping.

These worries, of course, have been around for almost as long as AI itself!

At the heart of the latest panic: semiconductor stocks, which have fallen hard, with the benchmark ETF for the sector, the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH), plunging from an all-time high in late June to a level 11% lower today.

Yikes.

But here’s what we need to keep in mind: At CEF Insider, we’re mainly interested in collecting dividends in the long run. When these short-term panics arrive, we take advantage of them, and set ourselves up for extra upside as we do.… Read more

I’m sure you’ve heard about the worries around private credit. They really hit the wall when Blue Owl Capital, a major private lender, put redemption limits on one of its funds earlier this year.

As investors, we must take note when such things happen. But we also need to remember that breathless media coverage of such events creates opportunities. That’s especially true in situations like this, involving a corner of the financial world many people simply don’t understand.

These are just the kind of setups we love to exploit at my CEF Insider service. And this one is handing us an opportunity in regional banks—and in particular, a closed-end fund (CEF) holding such banks, and turning their profits into a growing 6.4% dividend.… Read more

I’ll cut right to the chase: I think the stock market—and our 8.8%+ yielding closed-end funds (CEFs)—could be on the brink of another spike.

If I’m right, we’ll have last week’s “disappointing” jobs report—which showed a loss of 23,000 positions in July—to thank. (And that 8.8% yield, by the way, isn’t made up: It’s the average payout on all CEFs.)

The stock market’s surprising reaction to that jobs report—it rose in response—also positions one of our CEF Insider tech funds very well indeed, with a deep discount to NAV (around 10.7% as I write this) that’s stair-stepping toward par.

That suggests even more gains are ahead for this powerhouse 7.3%-yielding fund, on top of the 37% total return it’s posted this year.… Read more

At my CEF Insider service, we’ve long seen high-yield bonds as a critical part of our portfolio. And I’ve got a bond fund for you today that:

1. Has crushed stocks in the last five years (which is pretty well unheard of for a fund holding corporate bonds).
2. Generates a high, stable yield (I’m talking 7.5% payouts here, with the odd special dividend thrown in).
3. Is cheap, with a discount to net asset value (NAV, or the value of its underlying portfolio) of 8.8%. And I see that discount resuming its march toward par, putting upside pressure on the fund’s price as it does.

The recent blowup at Situational Awareness, a hedge fund run by a so-called AI “whiz kid,” tells us a lot about the mindset of the mainstream crowd these days—and what we need to do to avoid falling victim to it.

In fact, the same selloff that broke Situational Awareness put one of our favorite tech CEFs on sale. More than that: This steady payer is trading near discount levels not seen in more than a decade.

An AI Fund Built on Hype and Debt

After working at OpenAI (and being fired in April 2024), Leopold Aschenbrenner wrote an essay called “Situational Awareness” that got a lot of attention and later became the name of his hedge fund.… Read more

A Chinese startup is disrupting the AI world. Middle East worries are spiking oil.

These are the two biggest worries rocking markets now. And if you’re like me, you’re feeling a sense of déjà vu.

Let me take you back to February, when talk of a fight between Iran on one side and America and Israel on the other caused oil to soar and markets to sell off. Right now, that story is repeating (as it has many times as the conflict has ebbed and flowed).

On the AI side, variations of this story have been coming and going since early 2025, when a Chinese company created DeepSeek, a powerful, energy-efficient AI model.… Read more

Most investors love to talk about their winners. That’s understandable, but it’s still a shame, because losing investments can often teach us a lot more.

That’s true no matter what you invest in: stocks, real estate—and, yes, 8%+ paying closed-end funds (CEFs), our favorite income plays.

With that in mind, let’s look at three of the worst-performing CEFs of 2026 to see what they got wrong and how we can avoid holding such funds in the future.

I haven’t chosen this trio at random; these three CEFs are the worst performers on the market so far and have market caps above $250 million.… Read more

Imagine a credit fund that yields 15.3% and is built to deliver strong returns in all rate environments. That’s the promise of a closed-end fund (CEF) called the XAI Floating Rate & Alternative Income Trust (XFLT).

But the fund has, unfortunately, not backed that up with strong performance. As we can see in orange below, XFLT has badly lagged the popular S&P 500 index fund (in purple) since its launch in 2017.

A Laggard, Even With a 15.3% Yield

That performance amounts to just a 0.57% annualized total return! That’s less than many of the high-yield savings accounts offered by regional and national banks.… Read more