Closed-End Funds

Re: Your favorite CEF at the moment? POLL

rronald — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 17:20:41 GMT

NMO.

I realized that it's ~40% leveraged, but Nuveen seems to have a handle on resolving the leverage funding issues. The bond credit quality is excellent (average of AA and w/o any of that useless bond insurance). Duration is ~7.2 years, which is almost at the bottom end of long-term bond durations.

There's still a 14% discount to NAV compared to an average discount that looks to be about 5%.

Re: Your favorite CEF at the moment? POLL

hosprx1 — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 13:40:46 GMT

At the moment I like the non-leveraged muni CEF's APX, MUA, & MHF, for equity I like ADX. Does Steve still follow MUA? Thanks for this very interesting poll.

jim (hosprx1)

Re: Your favorite CEF at the moment? POLL

RustyA — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 17:44:07 GMT

I currently own several of the funds already mentioned and have been adding to these over the past few months, ACG, GIM, ETO, EVT, IGR, RFI, and EBI.

I like JGG as mentioned by several others and will probably add when the time is right for me. Thanks to everyone for this idea.

Just last week I purchased DNP. It is at a historical discount with a yield of 13.3% I always start off with a small position and dollar cost average when adding a new postion.

I also started a new position in UTG in early December. Only time will tell if these were wise decisions but I completed my tax loss selling and swapping around for this year.

Rusty

Re: Your favorite CEF at the moment? POLL

oldowl — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 16:52:47 GMT

I did several searches using fund finder on ETF connect. If the data is accurate, the majority of the Forum favorite bond funds are not leveraged. Guess we have all seen the problems in 2008 associated with leverage.

In my IRA account, the goal is to have a diversified portfolio of bond funds which yield 6% or better and I like all the funds mentioned with the exception of FAX which is leveraged.

In my taxable accounts, I am not so sure what to do. I am in the camp which believes the global recession will last until late in 2009 or early 2010 when the housing market in the US stabilizes. I don't need the income in these accounts and may stay with cash for some time. When I think the market will turn around - maybe 3 months before the bear is finished, I am interested in funds which invest in blue chip companies for their dividends. Funds like ETY (US) and EXG (global) and when real estate turns around, like Chamois, I like IGR.

To me, most of the commentators on TV and financial writers and fund managers make little sense. Krugman - the Princeton winner of the Nobel Prize seems better at digging into the data. Today, Sunday, on one of the talk shows, he mentioned that he figures it takes $200 billion in stimulus to raise the employment rate 1%. Whatever stimulus package gets through Congress will have a limited and slow impact. As far as I know, Sommers is in the same camp.

I am sure we have all based our investment preferences on some view of what is most likely to happen to the economy and the market in 2009, and that is why there is such a high preference for non leveraged bond funds which invest in US or foreign governments or, in the case of JGG, mortgage assets backed by the U.S.

Happy New Year,

Re: Your favorite CEF at the moment? POLL

elder — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 22:38:48 GMT

I'm a relative newby, and not so sure about 'at the moment,' but I've been attracted to BOE for exposure to global equity. (Five star rating from Morningstar.)

Bill

Re: Your favorite CEF at the moment? POLL

oldowl — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 23:22:05 GMT

I think you are right.

chamois:
Wow, you have a very good memory. At the time, I was disenchanted with Nuveen's tendency to make frequent small changes in distribution (death by a thousand cuts) and the shift from monthly to quarterly payments. This poll seems centered on "at the moment" theme, and some of the better quality Nuveen muni CEF seem outperformers, like NAD and NZF. The "at the moment" muni CEF I thought more highly of back then, (eg; PML, PMX) are doing relatively poorly as an apparent result of bad hedging.
One has to give both sponsors credit for their long term performancd in the muni field, along with Van Kampen, Morgan Stanley, Eaton Vance and Blackrock. I still have nearly equal positions in all of them, but at the moment for a vote in this thread, the higher quality nationals from Nuveen seem slightly better on a total return risk adjusted basis. JMO as always, and best wishes, Bill

Re: Your favorite CEF at the moment? POLL

chamois — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 23:57:15 GMT

Wow, you have a very good memory. At the time, I was disenchanted with Nuveen's tendency to make frequent small changes in distribution (death by a thousand cuts) and the shift from monthly to quarterly payments. This poll seems centered on "at the moment" theme, and some of the better quality Nuveen muni CEF seem outperformers, like NAD and NZF. The "at the moment" muni CEF I thought more highly of back then, (eg; PML, PMX) are doing relatively poorly as an apparent result of bad hedging.

One has to give both sponsors credit for their long term performancd in the muni field, along with Van Kampen, Morgan Stanley, Eaton Vance and Blackrock. I still have nearly equal positions in all of them, but at the moment for a vote in this thread, the higher quality nationals from Nuveen seem slightly better on a total return risk adjusted basis. JMO as always, and best wishes, Bill

Re: Your favorite CEF at the moment? POLL

eab123 — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 21:55:39 GMT

Chamois: probably a trick from my memory, but I was under the impresion that you did not like Nuveen funds. Is this correct ? If so, why do you favor NAD ?
Thanks

eab123

Re: Your favorite CEF at the moment? POLL

shreinstein — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 22:06:39 GMT

The etfconnect.com data on GIM, down -9.22% 2008 is dated 11/30/08.

The Morningstar data on GIM, up +6.57 YTD is dated 12/22/08.

I think therein lies the discrepancy.

Best,
Steve

Re: Your favorite CEF at the moment? POLL

capecod — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 18:21:48 GMT

Thanks for the info.

Regards, Dick

Re: Your favorite CEF at the moment? POLL

binturong — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 18:09:27 GMT

Hi Dick,

At least part of the problem may be because ETFConnect never reports the special end of year distribution of NII that GIM regularly makes. Here is the announcement from 2007 and here is this year's, $0.6088 and $0.8807 respectively. I didn't check earlier years, but assume they are similar. This chart, if set from 31 Dec 07 to 22 Dec 08, shows a YTD gain of about 7%, so they are taking into account the EOY that ETFConnect misses.

Put me down for GIM as my current favorite. It maintains its NAV over the years, has come through the current credit crisis well, provides foreign currency exposure, and pays a respectable yield entirely from NII. It also appeals to me because it is one of the few small successes that CEF have provided for me during this market turmoil. I first got into it in earrly October at a 17% discount, got a nice surprise with the EOY special distribution, added to my position on x-d date near the day's low, and have watched it go up since. So far, so good.

Re: Your favorite CEF at the moment? POLL

jagor — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:23:17 GMT

To Dick, I, too, was pretty astonished at those Morningstar figures. I always cite the source when I post information on these forums. But as I have written eslewhere, the ultimate source for information about any fund is the fund company itself. We would need to check with someone at Franklin Templeton, preferably fund manager Michael Hasenstab himself. The most reliable information comes straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak.

I also checked out MIN. Smith-Barney has a good analysts' report on it. They have a lot of good things to say about MIN--primarily a high-quality portfolio--but caution that the managed distribution policy could cause problems in the long-term. One good thing; MIN is not leveraged.

Jagor

Re: Your favorite CEF at the moment? POLL

capecod — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:09:50 GMT

Hi Jagor...not a challenge to you, but I'm very interested in figuring out wild discrepancy on GIM between M* and ETFConnect. ETF reports that GIM is DOWN 9.22% YTD on market price, UP 1.83% on NAV. I calculated distribution yield as 6.64% ($.042 X 12 / $7.58). Anybody have any idea what's up here? These are pretty decisive differences in buy/sell decision criteria!

Regards, Dick

Re: Your favorite CEF at the moment? POLL

comico — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 03:01:36 GMT

jpwrist:

Good question and comments.
I can tell you what I am holding and one would assume that they would be my favorites. If not, why am I holding them? I can't say that I like some of them as much as when they were trading higher. PMO, NVG, NIO, NZF, HPI, PHD, ETG, ETB, WIW, AWP, IGR.
I also note that many of the favorites mentioned by the others in this thread, have held up relatively well durng this difficult market time. Are we looking at the market with a rear view mirror?
Jos

You've got a point there, but I see a lot of people posting that they expect 2009 to be like 2008, only worse. So maybe it's not such a bad idea for them to view the market with a rearview mirror over a short timeframe.

I'm a hopeless optimist, and I tend to think 2009 will be better (not much, but enough to matter). I've been choosing otherwise solid CEFs in more beaten down sectors, MGU and IGR in particular. If we get a good sell-off in 1Q 2009, I'm planning on picking up more of these.

comico

Re: Your favorite CEF at the moment? POLL

norbertc — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 22:06:52 GMT

oldjack:
Due to the poor market conditions, my favorite is MIN, followed closely by ACG and GIM. I've been adding to all three lately.

Excellent picks IMHO. Almost a complete bond portfolio.