Author Archive: Michael Foster

In the run-up to the reversal of many of President Trump’s tariffs, we saw some true panic selling that turned into what can only be called panic buying: Investors eager to get back in as they realized the selloff was a buying opportunity.

And to no one’s surprise, tariff-related market drama has continued since then.

Last Wednesday’s bounce happened so fast I couldn’t get my response to the selloff published in time. Earlier last week I wrote, “Fortunately, this situation will not last forever. Stocks will ultimately recover their losses from this last week.” Then stocks did recover before those words could get published!… Read more

The pullback we’ve seen in the last week calls to mind the last big selloff we saw—in 2022.

That’s what I want to draw your attention to today (but only for a moment!). Because the 2022 experience still has a lot to tell us about how markets really view the possibility of a recession. Along with that, a quick look back can also help us develop our strategy for investing in 8%+ yielding closed-end funds (CEFs) from here.

Back then, the fear was that a combination of inflation and recession would cause stocks to plunge. And plunge they did. In fact, the market gave up on everything.… Read more

I often talk about high-yielding closed-end funds (CEFs) that are great buys because, well, there are plenty of CEFs that are. Yes, even in unprecedented times like these!

That’s because the best CEFs offer three things we love:

• Big dividends, with an average yield of 7.8% across the asset class.

• Bargain valuations, with average discounts to net asset value (NAV, or the value of a CEF’s underlying portfolio) of 5%.
  
  And how’s this for a stat …

• Proven performance, with 94% of CEFs posting positive returns (with dividends reinvested) over the last decade. Ninety. Four. Percent.

Still, every once in a while, a CEF comes across my desk that’s an obvious one to sell (or avoid if you don’t already hold it).… Read more

Most indicators are misleading investors right now, with some looking rosy and others seemingly saying it’s time to panic.

So today we’re going to parse through the noise and look at what’s really going on under the hood of the US economy.

Then I’m going to give you our latest “CEF Insider intel” on what to do with stocks—and funds (specifically closed-end funds) that hold them. We’re also going to dig into one bond fund yielding an outsized 13% that’s set to benefit as uncertainty grows.

Investor “Mood Ring” Says It’s Time to Panic …

Consider the CNN Fear & Greed index, a closely watched sentiment indicator.… Read more

In our Thursday article, we talked about a “quiet shift” in the markets, from growth stocks to value—and we named 2 CEFs yielding 9%+ that are primed to profit from it.

Yes, the recent jump in volatility is a big reason for that. So today, we’re going to look at another side of the rotation we’re seeing—a shift from passive investing to active.

Index Funds Are so 2023

As we move further into 2025, it’s getting clearer to me that we’re into a stock-picker’s market. Sitting in an index fund just won’t cut it.

That said, at my CEF Insider service, we’re still bullish on stocks (and stock-focused closed-end funds, many of which hand us 8%+ yields), and we’ll get into two stock-focused funds, along with another that holds preferred stocks—kind of a stock/bond hybrid—below.… Read more

Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen a quiet trend in investing—and today we’re going to tap into it with two funds yielding near 10%.

That’s right: enough to pay you back just shy of 10% of your initial buy a year in dividends alone.

What’s more, these two income plays—closed-end funds (CEFs), to be precise—have been around for nearly a century, with one dating from 1927 and the other having launched in 1929. That last date, of course, is notorious, as it heralded the start of the worst market crash in history.

I bring these two CEFs up now because their long institutional memory gives them a level of reliability that few other funds can match.… Read more

Here’s some good news in these uncertain times: Most investors who’ve invested for the long haul are well-equipped to deal with this selloff. That’s because, over the last five years, stocks have been on an absolute tear.

In that period, the S&P 500 has delivered an average annual total return of 19.1%, as of this writing. That’s more than double the average of about 8% in the last century.

Looking at Various Time Frames Can Skew Our View

Think back five years for a moment. Back then, the stock market’s prospects looked bleak, indeed, as we were at the beginning of the pandemic-driven selloff.… Read more

The market pullback we’ve seen in the last couple of weeks really hasn’t come as a surprise to me. The economy is sending what you could—at best—call mixed signals right now. And stocks, as they do in uncertain times, are reacting.

I expect more volatility ahead, so today we’re going to talk about ways to protect ourselves while maintaining the 8%+ dividend streams we’re drawing from our favorite closed-end funds (CEFs). (Read: We’re not going to cash here.)

Instead we’re going to focus on a strategy that’s been around as long as investing itself—diversification—by putting a bit more weight on assets beyond stocks.… Read more

For years, it’s been a struggle to try to convince many US investors to spread some of their money abroad.

It’s only natural: We simply tend to favor the familiar—our home country—over others. Investors the world over have this natural bias.

But that’s been slowly changing in recent months. Which is great news, because diversifying internationally is a particularly smart move in times like these.

Moreover, when you diversify—especially through 8%+ yielding income investments like closed-end funds (CEFs)—you can easily rebalance your holdings in line with changes in the market, moving more into US stocks when they’re low, say, and international assets are high.… Read more

There are two things I need to bring to your attention right now, especially if you’re an income investor. One is my outlook for the market, as volatility really hits home.

The other is a 15.6%-yielding(!) fund that just changed its name and ticker—and really grabbed contrarians’ attention in the process.

Let’s start with what’s really going on with this wild market.

The NASDAQ is now down more than 10% from its peak price, and stocks on the whole are down for the year. I don’t expect this to last very long. My take: 2025 is likely to be a year of volatility rather than a year of decline.… Read more