This mess with Archegos Capital Management has shone a light on the use of leverage in investing. And it’s particularly relevant (in a good way!) to investors in high-yield closed-end funds (CEFs).

That’s because it:

1. Clearly shows the difference between gambling (what Archegos was doing) and investing in smartly run, value-focused high-yield funds (what we do), and …
2. Highlights a key misconception about leverage we can take advantage of. (We’ll look at a 5.5%-yielding fund that profits from a methodical use of leverage in a moment.)

Archegos, if you’re not familiar, is a hedge fund that had (until last week) $30 billion in positions in several stocks, including ViacomCBS (VIAC), Discovery Inc.… Read more

It is challenging to find stocks that pay enough money to retire on. For example, even a 3.3% dividend—generous by today’s standards—isn’t enough to turn a $1,000,000 into an income stream that will last forever.

I’ll save you the math. It’s just $33,000 per year on a million dollars.

Fortunately, this same dividend yield is understated on most mainstream financial websites. In reality, this stock paid 7.7% over the past twelve months. Which means its millionaire investors actually earned $77,000 in dividend income.

Yes, you read that right. There was an extra $44,000 hidden in plain sight thanks to a “special” dividend payment.… Read more

Investors in high-yield real estate investment trusts (REITs) are still living in 2020, and we can tap that for 7% dividends and price upside in the coming weeks.

Let’s start where just about every investment story begins these days: the spring 2020 crash. One thing that stood out during that chaotic time was the relative ease with which workers made the shift to working from home. That gave rise to fears that companies would cut back on office space, an obvious negative for REITs that own office towers.

On the retail side, mall REITs started chasing rent checks from store owners, who were dealing with both COVID restrictions and the accelerated shift to e-commerce.… Read more

Thank you to our 1,578 Contrarian Income Report subscribers who attended our Q1 webcast a couple of weeks back!

We have you, our thoughtful reader and income investor, to thank for the inspiration behind the firehose. We received 114 questions during our one-hour call, plus several more beforehand. Amazing.

As promised, I have read each and every question (as has our excellent customer service team). Last week, we chatted about CEFs. Let’s tackle some dividend stock questions today.

Q: I love your overall dividend approach. I have some cash on the sideline expecting a correction. Any thoughts on the timing and percentage dip of that correction?… Read more

Stocks are floating higher and interest rates are spiking. The US recovery is still fragile. Even so, people are being vaccinated fast and the global economy is a coiled spring. Should we take advantage of the current pullback to secure more dividend for our dollar now, while we still can?

I’ve got a two-step dividend-growth strategy for you that’s perfectly suited to this tough-to-predict market. It’s handed subscribers to my Hidden Yields dividend-growth advisory a gain that’s doubled that of the market in the past four months—and I’m sure it’ll help you, too.

Step 1: Focus on Dividend Stocks With “Relative Strength”

In a pricey market like this one, it pays to go with dividend-growth stocks showing what I call “relative strength.”… Read more

There’s an opportunity unfolding for us in one corner of the closed-end fund (CEF) market, and we can tap it for 7.5% dividends and price upside, too.

That opportunity is in CEFs that hold preferred shares. And it includes a CEF called the John Hancock Preferred Income Fund II (HPF), which not only pays a 7.5% dividend but is positioned to grow its payout. So every $100,000 you put into HPF gets you $625 a month in income, versus $119 a month you’d get from the typical S&P 500 stock. And that’s just to start.

If you’re unfamiliar with preferreds, they’re like the common stocks most people buy except they pay higher dividends (preferreds typically pay 4% or more, versus the average sub-2% yield on common stocks).… Read more

Thanks to two stock market pullbacks in 2020 and this current pause to begin 2021, equity prices are likely still “catching up” with their pre-2020 trajectories. Big tech is frothy but many lesser-known dividend growers are still cheap. And that’s music to my ears, because the surest, safest way for us to double our money in the stock market is to buy the payouts that are growing the fastest.

Specifically, I’ve got my eye on 8 that are boosting their dividends by 23% per year. Twenty-three percent!

Before I reveal the list, some caveats. First, past dividend growth does not guarantee future payout hikes.… Read more

Don’t listen to the pundits who say you’ve missed your chance to buy the dip in tech stocks. There are still deals on the table—and I’ve got a way for you to grab a slice of the gains to come while pocketing a 5.6% dividend that’s growing.

That way leads straight through a high-yield closed-end fund (CEF) we’ll dive into in a second.

CEFs have long been my go-to for tech investing, mainly because, even in a rising market like this one, you can still get dividends of 5%+ from tech CEFs—payouts you’d be very hard-pressed to get by buying tech stocks “direct.”… Read more

Thank you to our 1,578 Contrarian Income Report subscribers who attended our Q1 webcast last week! We received 114 questions during our one-hour call, plus several dozen more beforehand. Amazing.

Thank you for the thoughtful questions. I’ve read each and every one. Let’s chat about popular closed-end fund (CEF) topics today. (Next week, we’ll circle back with your equity-focused dividend questions.)

Q: Brett, what are your thoughts about Calamos Convertible Funds (such as CCD, CHI and CHY), which are currently yielding about 8%? Thank you.

Convertible bonds are a big beneficiary of Jay Powell’s money printing activity. Convertibles pay regular interest.… Read more

Most people don’t realize it, but there are 500 funds out there paying massive dividends: I’m talking rich 7% payouts on average.

That’s five times more than index funds pay! And many of these 500 criminally overlooked funds clobber their benchmarks, too.

I’m talking about closed-end funds (CEFs), which are run by real human beings, not algorithms. And despite what most advisors will tell you, the stock-pickers running CEFs beat the market on the regular.

To see what I mean, consider two CEFs: the  Duff & Phelps Utility & Infrastructure Fund (DPG), which holds utility stocks  like NextEra Energy (NEE) and Dominion Energy (D), and the Tekla Healthcare Opportunities Fund (THQ), holder of major drug firms like Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Abbott Laboratories (ABT).… Read more