Author Archive: Michael Foster

With over 500 closed-end funds (CEFs) on the market, how do you choose the best one?

It’s not an easy question to answer, because there are literally dozens of metrics any CEF investor should look at before buying.

But you don’t have to worry, because in a moment, you’re going to get the “guts” of the 5-point system I’ve carefully designed to pick winning CEFs for our CEF Insider service.

So why is it important to have a good system?

Because if you don’t, you could find yourself holding an empty bag—like investors who bought the Virtus Total Return Fund (ZF) at the start of the year because they were seduced by its 15.3% dividend yield.… Read more

Cash payouts of 8% and more (often paid monthly), plus price upside of 10%, 20%, sometimes even higher.

That’s what you get with closed-end funds—and you can often get it in just one buy!

But as terrific as these off-the-radar funds are, you still need to be careful: of the 500 or so CEFs available to us, only a handful are worth your attention. Others give you mediocre returns, at best. And some can drain away your cash fast!

And in a year that’s been challenging for just about all asset classes, the worst CEFs are showing their stripes, with the real laggards down double digits, and for good reason—their portfolios (as measured by net asset value, or NAV) can’t generate the performance they need to push their share prices higher.… Read more

If you’ve filled up your car lately, I don’t have to tell you that oil prices have come back to life after years in the doldrums.

So today I’m going to give you 3 terrific funds that let you take back the power. Each one pays 6.5%+ dividends and is set to pack big price gains as oil resumes its rise (and it will).

An Income Gusher Where No One Bothers to Look

It’s rare to hear the words “oil” and “6.5%+ dividends” in the same sentence. The truth is, many energy stocks don’t give investors an income stream, while a lot of energy funds are fundamentally flawed.… Read more

By now you may have heard about the huge dividends and soaring price gains offered by closed-end funds (CEFs).

But here’s something that will probably surprise you: you can lock in even bigger—and safer—income streams (I’m talking 7%+ dividends), plus massive upside with smaller CEFs.

I know that sounds counterintuitive, and quite the opposite of what happens with stocks; small-cap companies rarely pay dividends and can collapse overnight.

Go Big the Small Way

The key is to go with small CEFs sporting portfolios backstopped by large cap stocks and whip-smart management teams, like the 3 funds (paying up to 10.1% in cash each) I’ll show you in a moment.… Read more

The stock market has just started recovering from its early-February lows—and there are 3 ridiculously cheap funds set to jump even higher while paying massive dividends.

Before I show them to you, let’s talk a bit about why the market is set to go higher.

Right now, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) is up 4.8% for 2018, but more importantly, it’s still off its 2018 high, reached in early January—and it’s only started to show signs of consistent recovery from February’s low in the last few weeks:

A Steadying Market

There are a lot of reasons for this, but the most important happened in April—just at the start of the upward move in stocks in the chart above.… Read more

When it comes to investing, too many folks ignore the signal and listen to the noise.

Case in point: one of the biggest stories of 2018—a looming trade war between America and China. Lately, the story has mutated into one about a trade war between America and, well, just about everyone—Europe, Asia, Mexico, even Canada!

But this trade war is noise—2018 has been a great year for stocks, and it’s going to get even better. Further on, I’ll give you a couple great ways to cash in.

First, a look at the facts, which are plain for everyone to see … and they clearly prove the naysayers wrong.… Read more

I don’t want to alarm you, but if you’ve got a lot of cash sitting on the sidelines right now, you’re about to miss out on a double-digit stock-market gain in the next 6 months.

In a moment, I’ll show you 5 funds you can buy today to lock in these quick, life-changing profits (and dividend payouts, too). To make it even easier for you, I’ve ranked these 5 popular buys from worst to first.

But first, let me tell you what I’m basing this bold prediction on. The story starts in early February of this year.

You no doubt recall those wild days: after a sharp run-up in stocks in January, which itself was on the heels of a 23% gain for the S&P 500 in 2017, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) suddenly did this:

A Nosedive

Panic was in the air—so much so that I was getting calls from worried family and friends asking me what was causing the selloff and what it meant for their retirements (I wrote about that in this article).… Read more

Today I’m doing something unusual: I’m changing my call on a popular closed-end fund (CEF).

Why?

Because this fund has gone on sale, and it’s just too good of a deal to overlook. If history is any guide—and with this fund it almost always is—it’s in for some nice upside very soon. In the meantime, buyers will grab a hefty and safe 10.9% cash dividend!

So if you dropped, say, $100k into this fund tomorrow, you’d get nearly 11% of your investment back—in cash—just one year from now (and I should also mention that it pays dividends monthly, too).… Read more

I saw an interesting tweet the other day—someone commenting on how lots of people have no qualms racking up $100,000 in debt to get a university degree but think putting $5,000 into the stock market is too risky.

The foolishness of this thinking is evident to anyone familiar with the stock market. Five-thousand dollars in a bland S&P 500 index fund like the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) would now be worth $12,175 after just a decade. That’s a lot of money to give up on just because of fear!

And don’t be fooled: this kind of thinking isn’t prudence. It’s fear.… Read more

Today I’m going to take you inside the most disrespected, criticized, lambasted and just plain ignored investments on the market today.

Why would I do that?

Simple. Because if you’re not as rich as you’d like to be, these unloved income plays are the perfect way to get you there.

I’m talking about closed-end funds (CEFs), a group of investments that, with a bit of effort (which I’m happy to put in for you) can hand you big, fast upside, safe cash dividends of 8% and higher—or both.

So why do so many investors see CEFs as perennial money losers?… Read more