I recently read a couple news pieces that brought what’s happening in the US economy these days into sharp focus. It’s a phenomenon I like to call “Cappuccino Effect.”

I’ll admit, it sounds too cute by half. But stick with me as we run through it, because I think it highlights a timely buying opportunity in 7%+ yielding equity closed-end funds (CEFs) whose portfolios are tilted toward consumer names.

Let’s start with inflation, which we all know ran hot last year. Some people didn’t expect this, while others thought it would last for a long time. Turns out both were wrong.… Read more

Sixty percent gains, needless to say, are nice!

They can be the difference between a comfortable retirement and, well, one where we’re a bit too concerned about losses.

A million dollars is plenty to retire on dividends. But isn’t $1,600,000 even better?

With a million, an 8% yielding portfolio dishes $80,000 per year in dividends. Nice.

But that 60%-higher portfolio pays $128,200. Even nicer.

Why am I teasing 60%? Because we have the best opportunity to bank big gains—from safe dividend stocks, no less!—since the fall of 2020.

The opportunity is here thanks to a form of “quiet QE” from the Federal Reserve.… Read more

A recession or more rate hikes in late 2023? We contrarian dividend investors don’t care—we’ve zeroed in on a group of stocks that will prosper no matter what.

Three, in particular, are begging us to buy them now. We’ll talk tickers in a moment, but let me start by saying they boast four key strengths we demand when we buy any stock in my Hidden Yields dividend-growth advisory:

• A healthy yield, so we’re starting off with a strong income stream.
  

• Rising dividends primed to keep soaring—and even accelerate. That increases our income stream, the yield on our original buy and, as we’ll see below, drives share prices higher, too.

People often don’t believe me when I tell them there are great funds out there paying sustainable 8%+ dividends—it just sounds too good to be true.

But there are literally hundreds out there that pay that much and way more, including the 9.6%-yielding Liberty All-Star Equity Fund (USA). Beyond having the best ticker out there, this one just hiked its payout even higher (by 6.7%, to be precise). The move came as no surprise to anyone already in the know about this smartly run closed-end fund (CEF). 

USA (in purple below) has a terrific track record, too, soundly beating the S&P 500, shown below by the performance of the benchmark Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO), in orange, over the last decade.… Read more

Our contrarian investing playbook is simple, but not easy.

We buy stocks that others are neglecting. At least currently! This means we secure prices when they are low and dividends when they are high.

Big tech stocks have been bid to the moon recently. But not all Nasdaq plays are expensive. The rally has been narrow, and believe it or not, we have five tech plays paying up to 6.7% available today.

This is a lot of yield in a sector that, sadly, pays less than 1% at large:

Tech Is Back to Yielding Less Than 1%

This is why the sector ranks tenth in dividend yield.… Read more

One of the most difficult things for me in 2022 was that, with all the doom and gloom in the air, I heard about a lot of people giving up on the dream of financial independence.

The worst part was that they were doing so at exactly the wrong time—right when the market decline had driven the yields on our favorite closed-end funds (CEFs) way up. Even now, after the S&P 500 has posted roughly 15% gains in 2023, as of this writing, plenty of CEFs yield 10%+, including nine in the portfolio of our CEF Insider service.

Worse, these folks were doing it because they’d bought into the media’s false narrative that a recession was looming, a trap I regularly warned about falling into here on Contrarian Outlook and in the pages of CEF Insider.… Read more

“Coach Brett, how many points do I have?”

My star player, Captain K, was dominating the basketball game. He’d steal the ball, storm down the court, and drain the shot. Then retreat into a defensive position and do it all over again.

Two points after two points after two points. I’d have lost count if I had to count. Fortunately though, we weren’t keeping score.

Most leagues these days don’t keep score when the players are only five years old. The run is more important than the result.

But my man K knew he was “killing it,” as his dad told him from the sidelines!… Read more

Few people would put the words “artificial intelligence” and “big dividends” in the same sentence—but those folks have never heard of closed-end funds (CEFs)!

These “yield machines” are perfect plays on the surging AI megatrend for three reasons:

• Big dividends: Thanks to CEFs, we can “download” big cash payouts from stocks that pay low (or no!) dividends themselves. Getting our payouts in cash, rather than paper gains, is priceless in the sometimes-volatile world of AI investing.

• Lower volatility: Speaking of volatility, as most equity CEFs invest in various sectors—not just tech—we get some extra insurance over folks who try to “cherry-pick” the AI trend themselves.

One of the most accurate indicators out there is telling us a recession is ahead. And—odd as it sounds—that warning is bringing us a chance to buy a 6.9%-paying fund with two key advantages:

1. This fund—a closed-end fund (CEF), to be precise, generates extra income when the bull takes a breather, making its 6.9% payout even safer, and …
2. It’s cheap, in relative terms, and will likely be in higher demand as a recession nears.

That fund, the Nuveen NASDAQ 100 Dynamic Overwrite Fund (QQQX) is at the center of our strategy today because of something that sounds obscure but should be on every investor’s radar: the yield spread between 3-month and 10-year Treasury notes is negative—meaning the yield on the 3-month is higher than that of the 10-year.… Read more

Do you also believe that a recession is on the way?

Note that we’re not saying when. Maybe later 2023. Or 2024. For sure 2025.

We are good economists. Casting out predictions without set timelines!

At some point, of course, all of the rate hikes add up. The housing market slows because mortgages become more expensive. Commercial landlords feel the pinch because, well, nobody rents office space anymore!

One by one, industries slow down. Eventually, the much-anticipated recession arrives.

As contrarian investors, we don’t actually care about economic data. GDP. CPI. PPI. PMI.

Whatever. It’s all TMI.

We’re after dividends and growth, in this order.… Read more