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Chinese stocks have cratered, and that might have you wondering if there are bargains to be had.

If you invest in closed-end funds (CEFs), which regularly offer yields north of 7%, you may also be wondering if CEFs that focus on China might be worth a look now, too—especially as these funds’ yields have popped as their prices have faded.

Let’s dive into the current state of play in China and answer these questions. Further on, I’ll give you my verdict on a China-based CEF throwing off an outsized 6.6% yield today.

Chinese Stocks Plunge: Value or Trap?

If you’re wondering where the pull some value investors are feeling toward China is coming from, this chart explains it.… Read more

Once upon a time, it was hard to find an income strategy much better than the idiot-proof “Dogs of the Dow.”

And hey, in this wild market in which the S&P can drop 2% in a couple of hours, this sounds pretty good. Let’s buy some blue chips and earn 3x more income than the broader market.

Which Dogs are paying the biggest dividends for 2022? As a group these battleship businesses are paying 3.8% versus just 1.2% for the broader market. We’ll review them in a moment. First, the Dogs of the Dow rules:

• Rule 1: After the final trading day of the year, identify the 10 highest-yielding stocks in the Dow.

Here’s my best advice as 2022 dawns: ignore the media’s constant bleating about inflation and supply-chain issues—these two boogeymen are nowhere near the threats everyone thinks they are!

In fact, terror-ridden headlines about either mark an opportunity for us contrarian income-seekers. So let’s go ahead and tap these investor fears for dividends yielding up to 10%, plus market-crushing returns as the crowd (inevitably!) comes around to our view.

Hints of a Supply-Chain Revival

More data will come in over the next few weeks to make things clearer, but so far there is one strong hint that the business press’s doomsday scenario—surging inflation, a stock-market correction and tighter corporate profits—just isn’t on.… Read more

The 2022 edition of the stock market is probably going to be a mess. With the Federal Reserve pausing its money printing, we are likely to see “flights to safety” that will feature—believe it or not—our favorite dividend stocks.

Yes, it’s all fun and games in the tech-and-crypto casino when the Fed is pumping billions into the bond market every month. Its purchases, of course, were funded by money that the Fed itself printed out of thin air. This capital flowed into speculative assets like the NASDAQ in 2020 and coins with dog faces in 2021.

The trendy stocks of 2022 are likely to be our style.… Read more

The stock market is probably going to be a mess this year. With the Federal Reserve taking away the punch bowl it’s been providing since March 2020, investors are likely to start selling once they begin sobering up.

This will likely be bad for speculations, such as profitless tech stocks and crypto coins featuring dog breeds. But it could be great for the dividend stocks we love, as “flights to safety” will naturally find refuge in our reliable payers.

We’ve already enjoyed some great dividend-powered profits from 2020 and 2021. And there’s no reason for us to cash in these profits just yet.… Read more

If you invest in closed-end funds (CEFs), you’re already miles ahead of most folks. (And if you don’t, there’s never been a better time to try them—I’ll show you a tech-focused CEF whose payout triples the dividend on “regular” stocks in a moment.)

A Trillion-Dollar Monster

The main reason why most investors miss out on CEFs (which offer tantalizing yields of 7.3%, on average, as I write this), is that the CEF market is small, with only around 500 CEFs out there in total. Compare that to ETFs, which numbered around 7,600 last year.

In fact, last year, ETFs hit a big milestone: they attracted a trillion dollars in a single calendar year.… Read more

If you’re as nervous about the 2022 financial scene as I am, we should take this holiday week to review 22 reliable dividends. I’m talking about generous payers that are prepared for any market, bull or bear.

In a market where liquidity is drying up fast, sign me up for safe dividends plus additional profits. The asset price “fuel” that our Federal Reserve has provided since March 2020 is disappearing. Fed Chairman Jay Powell is being forced by inflation numbers to reduce the massive cash the Fed has been providing the financial markets.

So, let’s talk about 22 stocks with sizable and stable dividends averaging 6.8% that can double, triple, maybe even quadruple your portfolio yield overnight.… Read more

Today we’re going to take a look at an unusual closed-end fund (CEF) that hands us a rich 10.5% dividend that comes our way monthly (and grows!). And it sends regular special dividends our way, too.

When you add those “bonus” payouts in, this fund often pays life-changing yields of up to 15%!

The fund in question is the PIMCO Dynamic Income Fund (PDI), a dividend titan that should be on any closed-end fund (CEF) investor’s watch list. (In fact, if you’re a subscriber to Contrarian Income Report, a sister to my CEF Insider service, you already know PDI—it recently landed in the CIR portfolio through a merger we’ll discuss a little later.)… Read more

If you’re as nervous about the 2022 edition of the stock market as I am, we should take this holiday week to review reliable REIT dividends.

REITs (real estate investment trusts) are stocks that dish 90% of their profits as payouts. This makes them ideal income plays for retirees. Rather than buying shares and “hoping” they’ll go up, we can lock in quarterly (or even monthly!) dividends—real cold cash!—with REITs.

For example, my favorite REIT for 2022 yields 4.9%. This equates to $4,900 per year on a $100K position, a great start to the year. Plus, we have the opportunity for price gains—for a total return of 10% or so.… Read more

We’re setting up for a volatile 2022, which means this is the perfect time for us to trot out the time-tested dividend-investing technique we’re going to look at today.

It works well during sanguine times. But when the markets get rocky, this “buy low” method really shines. It’s our way to buy more shares when our favorite dividend stocks are in the bargain bin. We can think of it as the ultimate market-timing tool for income investors.

You’ve probably used a version of this technique to build your current nest egg. Methodically investing a set amount of cash is known as dollar cost averaging (DCA).… Read more