Author Archive: Michael Foster

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

It’s a piece of advice so common I’m sure you’ve heard it a million times. Too bad it’s dead wrong.

I’m talking about the so-called “wisdom” that index funds always beat funds with real, live human managers.

Before I get into why it’s wrong—and show you 10 smartly run funds that easily beat their ETF cousins (while dropping an unheard-of 7.5% average dividend into our laps)—let me explain the problem here.

First, I should say that there are cases where index investing makes sense. If you’re 20 years old and you’re putting 10% of your income into a retirement fund, planning to retire when you’re 60 and won’t touch your savings till then, index investing may work for you.… Read more

Right now there are huge deals happening in a place far too few people care to look: municipal bonds.

Now before your eyes glaze over at the sight of the words “municipal bonds,” consider this: this unloved area of the market hands most Americans a shot at tax-free income. Plus, the 2 “muni” funds I’m going to show you below are set to hand us double-digit upside, too, thanks to a ridiculous bargain sale that’s way overdue for some quick “snap back” gains.

But first, let’s look at why now is the perfect time to jump into these unloved assets.… Read more

The US dollar has been heading skyward lately, and the market has been slow to catch on. That’s handing you a nice opportunity for gains if you buy the 3 funds I’ll show you today.

Before we get into these 3 stealth funds, though, let’s step back and look at what’s going on.

First, as I wrote in “A ‘Secret’ Way to Ride the Soaring Dollar to 7.6% Dividends (and Gains),”when President Trump was elected, he insisted on a “weak dollar” policy to boost US trade and exports. At the same time, the Federal Reserve was worried that the dollar’s strength would stoke inflation—which was already ticking upward—so it was eager to see the dollar fall, as well.… Read more

Almost every investor has a built-in bias that causes them to miss out on significant gains. It’s 100% predictable, easy for us to profit from and is running rampant in the markets today.

In just a few paragraphs, I’ll show you 2 funds that are perfectly positioned to profit from it, with one yielding an incredible 11.4%.

Before I get to that, let me explain.

The flaw in human nature I’m talking about is called recency bias. Don’t let the wordy name fool you: it just refers to the tendency people have to assume something will happen again, just because it happened in the recent past.… Read more

Not many folks have been paying attention to the US dollar’s latest jump, which is too bad, because it’s opened up a glaring profit opportunity.

The key?

A low-key fund throwing off a 7.6%—and growing—dividend and whose price is poised to surge with the greenback.

Before I unveil it, let’s take a quick look at how the dollar is driving this profit opportunity. When you see what I have to show you, I think you’ll be chomping at the bit to jump in.

The Donald and the Dollar

First off, the dollar has had a troubled history with President Trump, and that history is by design.… Read more

One of the best things about closed-end fund (CEF) investing is the terrific “bonus” discounts CEFs give us on stocks and other investments.

Here’s what I mean by a bonus discount: CEFs often trade at a level far different—and cheaper—than their net asset value (NAV), or the market price of a fund’s portfolio holdings.

And these discounts aren’t peanuts: you can easily snag CEFs trading at, say, $1.00 per share when their “real” value is $1.10 share—or more.

Right now, there are 3 low-risk, highly diversified funds trading at a near 20% discount to their NAVs (17.6%, on average). All 3 boast dividend yields far higher than the average S&P 500 stock, with one set to pay us up to 9% in cash, in the form of a special dividend.… Read more

I know I don’t have to tell you that there are a ton of so-called experts out there dying to tell you why bitcoin, ripple or some other cryptocurrency is a surefire way to get rich.

Too bad they’re all wrong.

If you’ve been reading my columns on Contrarian Outlook, you know I issued a dire warning around Christmas that bitcoin’s promises were hollow, meaning the bubble was going to pop. “The truth is, bitcoin is actually the least private currency in existence!” I wrote, dismissing bitcoin’s biggest appeal for speculators.

But I had a bigger worry: would a burst bitcoin bubble wipe out tech stocks, too?… Read more