Author Archive: Michael Foster

Members of our CEF Insider service often ask me when they should sell a closed-end fund.

The truth is, when it comes to CEFs, it’s easier to know when to buy than when to sell.

If the fund is well managed, has a strong track record, is deeply discounted in relation to net asset value, or NAV (another way of saying the underlying value of the fund’s portfolio) and has a relatively safe dividend, that CEF has already gone a significant distance toward being a buy.

Sell signs aren’t always as clear, but they’re still there. You just need to know what to look for.… Read more

Imagine if you could find a single signal that would warn you when a recession is on the horizon.

Well, one such indicator does exist—and it’s telling us that storm clouds are indeed building. That means it’s time for contrarians like us to get greedy for income (and gains)!

I’ll explain this seeming contradiction—and name a 6.7%-yielding fund that should be on your list—in a second. First, here’s more on this reliable “recession indicator.”

A Three-Decade History of Being Right

Campbell Harvey, an economist at Duke University, knows all about this recession signal: he was the first person to run across it, over 30 years ago.… Read more

The trade-war panic is in full retreat—and it’s left us three ridiculously cheap funds set to soar even higher than the market in the coming months.

Best of all, we’ll bag some very nice dividends from this trio: I’m talking outsized yields up to 7.4%!

Before I show them to you, let’s talk about why the market looks set to head higher.

Right now, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) is up 18.3% for 2019. This sounds too good to last, but keep in mind that this jump started near the depths of the late 2018 correction—a low level.

That makes the year-to-date number misleading; a longer-term view shows signs of consistent and slow recovery from 2018’s major volatility:

A Steadying Market

There are a lot of reasons for this, but the two most important ones are good signs for stocks.… Read more

Almost everyone walked right by the three monster dividends I’ll show you in a minute: they yield up to 9% now, and we’re looking at 15%+ price upside too!

The media always downplays these picks—and never gives them the credit they’re due, especially when it comes to their massive dividend payouts.

But a few folks are starting to see these three funds as the source of steady retirement cash (plus upside) they are. So you only have a short time—I’m talking days—to make your move here.

I’ll unmask these three steady retirement dividends shortly (including one that even pays you every month, as opposed to every quarter), and rank them from worst to first.… Read more

Until about a year ago, the most common question I got from readers was always something like: “How will rising interest rates affect my portfolio?”

The question looks simple, but the answer was not, and in 2015, when the Fed said it would start hiking rates (the first hike came in December of that year), plenty of panicked investors sold (despite my advice at the time):

Short-Term Rate Fears …

What this chart really meant is that these short-term panickers gave patient investors a great buying opportunity, as the next chart shows:

… Set Up Longer-Term Gains

But the folks who sold right around the time of the first rate cut missed out because they feared the Fed.… Read more

There’s a very easy (and costly) mistake you can make when picking funds. And plenty of folks make it every day.

These investors run up on the rocks because this error looks like a good idea, until you dig just a little bit deeper.

Today I’m going to show you exactly what this mistake is and reveal three laggard funds that just might tempt you into making it. The worst part? They don’t even pay you a dividend for your trouble!

First, the mistake itself: I’m talking about choosing a fund because it has one big winner in its portfolio.

Sound like nonsense?… Read more

Let’s face it: you hardly ever get decent income from commodity stocks. And when you do, these payouts are usually first to get the axe next time, say, oil nosedives.

And with oil doing this…

Oil Falls—Oil Companies’ Profits to Follow

… you may worry that it’s about to get harder to squeeze income out of oil companies.

Still, if you’re worried about inflation or the Federal Reserve distorting markets, or if you just want to hedge your stock portfolio, you’ll likely turn to commodities at some point. And there’s no more established inflation hedge than gold.

There’s just one problem: gold doesn’t produce anything.… Read more

Today I’m going to give you a strategy—and a strong 6.5%-yielding fund—that both shine when the market throws a tantrum.

And both are way better than what most people do when things get rough: cash in.

Many studies have shown that trying to time the market simply doesn’t work. And even if you did have the superhuman ability to get in and out perfectly, you’d still underperform a buy-and-hold approach. Thanks to compound interest, keeping skin in the game is more important than trying to save your skin.

Options: Your (Surprising) Friend When Markets Roil

Instead of fruitlessly trying to time the market, we’re going to do something that actually works (and takes far less effort!).… Read more

More CEF Insider subscribers have been asking me how to deal with volatility lately. It’s easy to see why:

Another Downturn Appears … Then Disappears

So today I’m going to give you an easy way to cushion your portfolio in this whipsawing market. I’m actually going to show you three ways.

All three are closed-end funds (CEFs) with a special “insurance policy” that tones down market lurches. But you’ll still enjoy market recoveries, like the one we’ve seen in recent days.

The best part: we’ll keep our income stream strong and growing, thanks to these three funds’ massive 6.7%+ dividend yields.… Read more

This levitating market just might have you thinking there are no more cheap 6%+ dividends out there.

Well, don’t worry, because there certainly are—particularly if you fish in the obscure pool of funds we’re going to dive into today.

It boasts plenty of big payouts of 6% and more. But most folks don’t even consider it, for two reasons:

• These funds have already soared this year (but one in particular is throwing off a big tax-free dividend and trades for 11% less than its “true” value; I’ll name that fund shortly).

• These funds’ yields are much higher than they appear.