Author Archive: Michael Foster

This mess with Archegos Capital Management has shone a light on the use of leverage in investing. And it’s particularly relevant (in a good way!) to investors in high-yield closed-end funds (CEFs).

That’s because it:

1. Clearly shows the difference between gambling (what Archegos was doing) and investing in smartly run, value-focused high-yield funds (what we do), and …
2. Highlights a key misconception about leverage we can take advantage of. (We’ll look at a 5.5%-yielding fund that profits from a methodical use of leverage in a moment.)

Archegos, if you’re not familiar, is a hedge fund that had (until last week) $30 billion in positions in several stocks, including ViacomCBS (VIAC), Discovery Inc.… Read more

Investors in high-yield real estate investment trusts (REITs) are still living in 2020, and we can tap that for 7% dividends and price upside in the coming weeks.

Let’s start where just about every investment story begins these days: the spring 2020 crash. One thing that stood out during that chaotic time was the relative ease with which workers made the shift to working from home. That gave rise to fears that companies would cut back on office space, an obvious negative for REITs that own office towers.

On the retail side, mall REITs started chasing rent checks from store owners, who were dealing with both COVID restrictions and the accelerated shift to e-commerce.… Read more

There’s an opportunity unfolding for us in one corner of the closed-end fund (CEF) market, and we can tap it for 7.5% dividends and price upside, too.

That opportunity is in CEFs that hold preferred shares. And it includes a CEF called the John Hancock Preferred Income Fund II (HPF), which not only pays a 7.5% dividend but is positioned to grow its payout. So every $100,000 you put into HPF gets you $625 a month in income, versus $119 a month you’d get from the typical S&P 500 stock. And that’s just to start.

If you’re unfamiliar with preferreds, they’re like the common stocks most people buy except they pay higher dividends (preferreds typically pay 4% or more, versus the average sub-2% yield on common stocks).… Read more

Don’t listen to the pundits who say you’ve missed your chance to buy the dip in tech stocks. There are still deals on the table—and I’ve got a way for you to grab a slice of the gains to come while pocketing a 5.6% dividend that’s growing.

That way leads straight through a high-yield closed-end fund (CEF) we’ll dive into in a second.

CEFs have long been my go-to for tech investing, mainly because, even in a rising market like this one, you can still get dividends of 5%+ from tech CEFs—payouts you’d be very hard-pressed to get by buying tech stocks “direct.”… Read more

If you’re not one to invest through individual stocks, a fund is the way to go. And if you invest in one totally overlooked type of fund, you can get the best of all worlds: diversification, the profit-making power only the stock market can provide—and a 7% dividend, too!

1-Click Diversification

With a fund, you get part ownership in the stocks the fund holds. And if you buy a broad-based fund like the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) or the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), you get ownership of hundreds of companies at once. These funds’ diversity helps protect and grow your wealth, as history shows us.… Read more

Let’s talk about inflation for a moment, because worries over rising prices are boiling over, and we contrarians can work them to our advantage.

If you’ve been watching the markets—and I’m guessing you have—you know that the rising 10-year Treasury yield, and the specter of inflation it brings, has weighed on stocks—particularly tech stocks.

Inflation Worries Weigh on Tech

As you can see, the tech-heavy NASDAQ, which outperforms the S&P 500 over just about any timeline, has fallen well behind in 2021 as of this writing. Meantime, Treasury rates continue their climb.

Inflation Pressures Rise

Here’s where the story gets interesting, because normally inflation fears trigger a rush into gold—but that’s just not happening this time.… Read more

One group of funds is doing something very unusual right now: they’re raising their dividends by double digits! And those huge hikes have driven the yields on some of these unsung income plays well above 7%.

Today we’re going to jump on this red-hot contrarian opportunity.

These smartly run dividend payers (and growers!) are closed-end funds (CEFs) that hold floating-rate loans. These assets are often overlooked, which is too bad, because they’re corporate bonds that do the opposite of what most bonds do. That makes them perfect buys for upside in today’s market, when “regular” corporate bonds’ prices are plunging.

Let me explain how floating-rate loans work, and how we’ll squeeze them for strong gains and growing 7%+ dividends.… Read more

The chicken littles fretting about inflation are ignoring something: the “bonus” $2.9 trillion that’s primed to ignite stocks—one group of stocks in particular.

The $2.9 trillion isn’t a new stimulus plan (although those seem to roll out daily). It’s the extra savings hoarded by consumers around the world. To put that in context, global GDP is about $89 trillion, so the total saved will amount to 3.3% of extra growth when it’s finally unleashed.

You’d think most economists would have already accounted for this savings glut in their projections. You’d also expect markets to price in this information. But neither is the case.… Read more

We’re contrarians first and foremost here at Contrarian Outlook, so when we hear the latest “sure thing” from the mainstream crowd, we get more than a little suspicious.

So it goes with the recent round of selling on the stock markets, which has been driven by the “certainty” that interest rates will skyrocket, and higher rates will crush demand for stocks, especially the tech stocks that have driven the market’s rebound from the March 2020 crash.

Does this view stand up (sneak preview: no)? And what should we contrarians do in response (sneak preview: buy what everyone else is selling—particularly through a group of funds sporting some very impressive dividend yields).… Read more

There’s $2 trillion in cash headed straight into the US economy, and today we’re going to grab a share, both in the form of price gains and dividends.

I’m talking about the latest stimulus plan that’s made its way through the House of Representatives.

While plenty of folks fret over the rise in public debt this $1.9-trillion plan brings—and that’s a real concern—it’s a problem for another day. The cash is needed to get the economy through to the other side of the current crisis.

And pretty well all of this package is set to get spent through direct payouts to people and organizations that will spend it, with the headline item being $1,400 in stimulus checks (or about $1.1 trillion in all) going to taxpayers.… Read more