Author Archive: Michael Foster

There’s a three-word phrase that’s terrifying just about everyone these days. If you take it at face value, it could trick you into making a dangerous mistake with your retirement.

It springs from the following chart:

The Yield-Curve Panic

This chart tracks the spread between yields on the 10-year Treasury and the 2-year Treasury. In normal times, the shorter-term bond pays a smaller yield than the longer-term bond. But the difference between the two has gotten smaller and is now close to going negative.

That’s where our dangerous phrase comes from: this situation is known as an inverted yield curve.

The upshot?… Read more

In February, I wrote this about the PIMCO Global Stocks+ and Income Fund (PGP):

“If you have PGP in your portfolio, this is the time to ditch it.”

Then in early April, this happened:

Warning Becomes Reality

What was behind this nosedive? A whopping 23% dividend cut! Worse, PGP owners who didn’t heed my sell call are now sitting on 11% price losses from the day the cuts were announced.

How did I know this calamity was coming?

When it comes to high-yielding CEFs, there are three warning signs that tell you a big crash is just around the corner, and each one was blaring before PGP’s drop.… Read more

Oil prices have been locked in a tight range for five years—and I know I don’t have to tell you that this has been a disaster for energy investors.

Oil Fails to Launch

With the benchmark Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLE) unable to hold its gains for long (let alone recover to pre-crash levels), even the most conservative energy investor has been clobbered.

Why is this happening?

After all, you’d think a growing global population and emerging-market growth would drive up the price of a limited resource like oil. But the tables have turned. I’ll get into why shortly.

These Dividend Payers Are Better Buys Than Oil

For now, though, I recommend that income-seekers go a different route and pick stocks (and closed-end funds [CEFs]) that benefit from cheaper oil and gas—like utilities.… Read more

Here’s something you may not know about closed-end funds (CEFs): they can give you a much lower tax bill than if you buy and sell stocks yourself.

And if you follow the first-level strategy most folks do and invest through an index fund like the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), you’re almost certainly paying more tax than you need to. Worse, you’re stuck with a 2% dividend that falls way short of the 8%+ CEF payouts you need to fund your retirement on a reasonably sized nest egg.

CEFs’ tax advantages stem from the fact that they have skilled pros running the show—and these managers know how to cut the taxes you’ll pay on the big dividends they send you.… Read more

I’m about to show you three potent investing trends that are being drowned out by the media noise. Then we’ll uncover three snubbed funds set to ride these surging trends to big gains (hint: one of these buys pays an amazing 8.4% dividend!).

Let’s get started.

Trend No. 1: A Still-Roaring US Economy

Take a close look at the chart below. See how every quarter in 2018 has been ahead of every quarter since 2015 by a mile?

Here’s the funny thing: despite that, 2018 gave us the first bear market in stocks since 2008.

It makes zero sense … and it’s why I’ve been pounding the table on stocks since they started falling last year.… Read more

Every so often, a CEF Insider subscriber asks if I see oil-related closed-end funds (CEFs) as solid income plays. You might be wondering the same, given the surge in oil prices—and oil stocks—since the start of 2019.

Today we’re going to answer that question. Along the way, we’ll uncover an energy CEF you need to steer clear of, no matter how you feel about oil.

Let’s start by making a quick run through history: what would have happened if you invested in energy CEFs over the last few years?

Source: CEF Insider

While the last three years have seen a decent average annualized return, and a negative return if you got in five years ago.… Read more

If you want to diversify, get a strong—and growing—dividend and dodge risky speculation, the SPDR S&P Dividend ETF (SDY) may seem like a no-brainer.

But buying this fund would be a huge mistake!

Today I’m going to show you why, and help you avoid a couple other seemingly obvious moves that could steer you into big trouble. Further on, I’ll reveal a terrific fund paying an outsized monthly dividend (yielding 7.9%) to buy now and tuck away for two decades or more.

First, back to SDY, which has beaten the S&P 500 over the past decade:

SDY Throws Us the Bait …

At the same time, the fund has shown solid dividend growth, as well as some massive special dividends that have helped its payouts grow substantially over the years:

… and Sets the Hook

So why not just buy this fund and call it a day?… Read more

Today I’ll show you how I helped investors sidestep a “silent” payout cut in a popular closed-end fund (CEF). We’ll also look at how to approach this fan fave today—and how this tale can help us keep our nest eggs (and income!) safe.

Calling Out the Cool Kid

I’m talking about the PIMCO Dynamic Income Fund (PDI), which I flagged nearly two years ago, when it was at the height of its fame thanks to its outsized 9% dividend yield.

Even though first-level investors couldn’t get enough of PDI, I fired off a warning flare, writing that its massive 8.4% premium to net asset value (NAV, or the value of the corporate and government bonds and mortgage-backed securities it held) was under threat.… Read more

It’s a question that’s absolutely critical when judging a closed-end fund: how safe is the dividend?

This is particularly crucial when you consider the huge yields the average CEF offers compared to their ETF cousins. For the 2,918 ETFs available to US investors, the average payout is 1.9%, partly because 735 of these funds pay nothing at all. But even without those, the average ETF yield is still a pathetic 2.5%.

CEFs? For the over 450 covered by my CEF Insider service, the average yield is 7.3%, and only nine yield less than 1%. In fact, over 85% of CEFs yield more than 4%, while just 9% of ETFs do!… Read more

Tune out the nervous Nellies panicking over last week’s job numbers: they missed the real news—and their panic has handed us a straight shot at a cheap 7.6% dividend today.

More on that opportunity shortly.

First, the real story here is that wages jumped 3.4% in February, which is the fastest rate in half a century. And the unemployment rate sits at 3.8%, far lower than just two years ago, when it levitated north of 4.8%.

A Direct Line From Paychecks to Profits

I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that consumers drive the economy, and more workers, making more cash, are great news for stocks.… Read more