The NAVigator, from the Active Investment Company Alliance (AICA), talks all-weather investing and “excellence beyond indexing” through the use of closed-end funds (CEFs) & business-development companies (BDCs). It will help listeners plot a new and different course to financial success, via the tactical use of securities that mix active management within listed & non-listed structures. Subscribe now to get regular updates on everything you need to know to succeed with CEFs & BDCs.
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Digging into lesser-known interval fund picks with John Cole Scott
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14:23
John Cole Scott, President of Closed-End Fund Advisors and the Chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance, discusses interval funds and digs into the data on four funds that use the structure to create promising investment opportunities for investors. Plus, learn about the NAVigator Podcast's first-ever contest, in celebration of its fifth …
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Barings' Feeley: Rate-cut cycle will make high-yield bonds more attractive
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11:28
Sean Feeley, part of the U.S. High Yield Investment Group at Barings, says he believes that with the bulk of interest rate adjustments happening at the short end of the yield curve, a wave of refinancing of shorter-term debt is coming, and that this typically makes high-yield investments look more attractive. Feeley expects the economy to avoid a r…
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John Cole Scott on four funds to consider in the fourth quarter
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12:03
John Cole Scott, President of Closed-End Fund Advisors and Chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance, looks ahead to the fourth quarter on today's podcast. He discusses two equity and two fixed-income funds that hit his trifecta — an analytical mix of discount, dividend, and net asset value — and that he says look particularly promising fo…
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abrdn's Laranjiero: Rate cuts should boost muni bond funds
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10:10
Miguel Laranjeiro, Investment Director at abrdn, says we are seeing "the beginning of a robust in-flow cycle into the muni space," noting that credit spreads and all-in yields are attractive and that the value of the tax exemption will particularly pay off now. He says he expects the Federal Reserve's long-awaited rate cuts will end the longest yie…
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Oppenheimer's Penn on how BDCs might fare when the rate cuts start
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11:07
Mitchel Penn, Managing Director of Equity Research at Oppenheimer and Co., says that while business development companies (BDCs) have struggled this year, they are positioned well to ride out the changing interest rate cycle. He says that when the Federal Reserve starts cutting interest rates, he expects BDCs to see higher fee income, though some o…
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John Cole Scott on the potential benefits of sector swapping
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12:13
John Cole Scott, President of Closed-End Fund Advisors and Chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance, discusses how investors in funds trading at premiums can use sector swapping to turbocharge their gains. He describes a process where an investor sells out of funds trading at premiums and purchases similar funds trading at discounts, lock…
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John Cole Scott on how funds perform after tenders, closings, and dividend changes
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13:15
John Cole Scott, president of Closed-End Fund Advisors and Chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance, explains how closed-end funds have responded historically to corporate actions like tender offers, liquidations, transitions to open-end funds, rights offerings, and big changes in dividend policy. He notes that understanding how those eve…
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NAVigator bonus: RVP's Fertig on what's attractive as rate-cut cycle starts
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18:54
Maury Fertig, Chief Investment Officer at Relative Value Partners, discusses how the changing interest rate picture is impacting considerations on the closed-end funds he is considering for client portfolios — and which areas of the closed-end fund universe look particularly attractive now. He also talks about how a number of BlackRock funds are pe…
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Saratoga's Oberbeck on the state of private credit ahead of interest rate cuts
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12:36
Chris Oberbeck, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Saratoga Investment Corp., says that private credit — which has been on the rise for several years — is being challenged by a cooling market for mergers and acquisition activity. That has put pricing pressure on managers, which should ease a bit as rates come down and mergers and financing dea…
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CAIA's Filbeck on interval funds and media criticism of the structure
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13:10
Aaron Filbeck, Managing Director of the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association (CAIA), discusses interval funds, their evolution, fee structures, and potential. He also responds to recent media coverage that has been critical of them as investment vehicles, including a recent Wall Street Journal article on how interval fund fees "will…
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XAI's Flynn on growth and expansion in interval funds
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13:56
Kimberly Flynn, Managing Director of Alternative Investments at XA Investments, discusses the state of interval funds, which have been growing rapidly and expanding their asset reach. It's not just the 50-plus funds on file and the entry of big players and new investment ideas, but also the recent rise in media interest. In the interview, Flynn res…
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BlueBay's Farley: 'We're looking at a multi-year high in default rates'
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13:17
Duncan Farley, Portfolio Manager on the Developed Markets Special Situations team at RBC BlueBay Asset Management — manager of the BlueBay Destra International Event-Driven Credit Fund — says corporations that have been "dining out on cheap finance" now have indigestion because their debt levels, leverage, and costs have gone up, so "the math doesn…
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John Cole Scott on where closed-end funds stand at mid-year
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13:43
John Cole Scott, President of Closed-End Fund Advisors and Chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance, provides an update on what's been happening with closed-end funds throughout the first half of 2024. He notes that discounts narrowed almost across the board, but yields increased, resulting in positive returns for most asset classes.…
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abrdn’s Akus sees opportunity as healthcare plays ‘catch up’ with the market
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12:08
Jason Akus, Senior Investment Director and Head of Healthcare Investing at abrdn and manager of the firm’s four closed-end funds covering biotech and healthcare, says that the stock market appears to be broadening out and that healthcare and biotech are both likely to be beneficiaries. Healthcare stocks have generally lagged the stock market since …
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CION's Gatto: Money rushing into BDCs creates middle-market opportunities
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13:22
Mark Gatto, Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer of CION Investment Group — which manages the business development company CION Investment Corp. — discusses the heavy interest and cash flow into BDCs and how that is changing the space and making it important for investors and advisers to "pull back the layers to understand what they are invest…
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Picking between funds is about much more than big yields
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12:41
John Cole Scott, President of Closed-End Fund Advisors and Chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance, compares two high-yielding offerings from Ares, breaking down the Ares Dynamic Credit Allocation (ARDC) fund and the CION Ares Diversified Credit I (CADUX) fund. He shows that while both could be viable and attractive options for investors…
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John Cole Scott on BDCs vs. private credit funds, AI impacting money management, and more
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11:50
John Cole Scott, President of Closed-End Fund Advisors and Chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance, shares takeaways from a recent industry conference focused on business development companies (BDCs). He talks about how BDCs compare to private credit funds, how the market is changing, and how some money managers are using artificial inte…
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VettaFi's Islam on the highs and lows of applying rules to CEF investing
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9:24
Roxanna Islam, Head of Sector and Industry Research at VettaFi, discusses the benefits and flaws of applying rules-based investing to closed-end funds. She notes that changes in the industry have forced changes on a rules-guided index of closed-end funds created by VettaFi, and how that is impacting the holdings and asset allocation of the fund-of-…
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When the industry tries to narrow discounts, 'that's good for all of us'
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11:41
Rob Shaker, Portfolio Manager at Shaker Financial Services, says that economic conditions — the debt-ceiling debate, troubled banks, higher interest rates and persistent inflation — have created a situation where the market isn’t climbing the proverbial wall of worry, but rather a ‘Wall of Meh.’ However, he adds that there is opportunity in the uni…
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Nuveen's Dave Lamb on how fund firms are reacting to increased activism
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13:23
Dave Lamb, Head of Closed-End Funds at Nuveen, says there is a "much more aggressive form of activism today than what we saw years ago," and notes that it's driven entirely by discount-arbitrage opportunities rather than whether a fund is underperforming due to management decision-making. With discounts at wide levels — particularly for fixed-incom…
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John Cole Scott on new trends reshaping closed-end funds
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13:31
John Cole Scott, President of Closed-End Fund Advisors and Chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance, talks about the good and bad in recent industry developments. For example, Scott discusses how fund sponsors are taking steps to keep a lid on discounts, potentially reducing a fund's attractiveness to activist investors. He also highlight…
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BlackRock's Minar on how the firm is changing discount plays
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12:52
Stephen Minar, Managing Director and Head of Closed-End Funds at BlackRock, discusses a contemporary conundrum in the closed-end fund industry: How discounts drive money flows into closed-end funds but also attract activist investors whose actions may be harmful to long-term individual investors. To address this, Minar notes that BlackRock has laun…
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Sizemore: "The Fed's actions have changed, but the discounts remain"
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13:12
Charles Lewis Sizemore, chief investment officer at Sizemore Capital Management, says that while short-term rates are as high as they are likely to be, the "massive discount" created in closed-end funds while rates were on the rise have not dissipated. That means closed-end funds remain a compelling value now, and Sizemore said he is finding partic…
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Angel Oak's Triick says mortgages are in a fixed-income sweet spot now
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13:00
Clayton Triick, Head of Portfolio Management, Public Strategies at Angel Oak Capital Advisors — part of the team running the Angel Oak Strategic Credit Fund — says that fundamentals and valuations seldom get aligned the way they have right now for the U.S. housing market and American homeowners. He notes that valuations are "cheaper than they shoul…
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Liberty Street's Munafo on opportunities in late-stage private venture
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14:03
Christian Munafo, Chief Investment Officer at Liberty Street Advisors, which runs the Private Shares Fund, discusses how late-stage private venture companies are generating a huge chunk of economic power off most investors' radar. He says now is the time for many investors to pursue the opportunity, coming off of two years in which private shares s…
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Abrdn's Mondillo: Record discounts plus solid yields should pay off for muni investors
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10:59
Jonathan Mondillo, head of North American fixed income for abrdn says that record discount levels for municipal bond closed-end funds, coupled with attractive yields on those funds, are creating real opportunities for investors, though he warns about the middle of the yield curve, noting that the most compelling values are at the two ends of the ba…
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John Cole Scott gives his first take on 2024
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12:32
John Cole Scott, President of Closed-End Fund Advisors and Chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance, drills into the first-quarter data for closed-end funds. He notes that while municipal-bond funds still couldn't break out of their long-running slump, the first three months were a strong time for most closed-end funds (more than 90 perce…
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Sit's Doty says meaningful rate cuts aren't coming until 2025
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13:24
Bryce Doty, Senior Portfolio Manager at Sit Investment Associates, says the uptick in inflation is not enough to overwhelm the yields investors are earning, noting that real returns may be better than ever. He says investors should enjoy collecting the high yields while interest rates remain high, and while total returns should improve once cuts st…
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Allspring's de Silva says U.S. still has the world's best income opportunities
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10:31
Harin de Silva, manager of the Allspring Global Dividend Opportunity fund, says that the U.S. markets have remained among the best income-generating investment opportunities when it comes to the yields being generated relative to the risks being taken. While he favors a global allocation, de Silva noted that the fund has a surprising tilt toward th…
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What struggles in the BDC market portend in a changing rate cycle
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9:18
Nicholas Marshi, editor at the BDC Reporter, talks about the struggles business development companies (BDCs) had at the end of 2023, saying he was shocked to see that more than a third of the BDCs his publication tracks were "performing below ... reasonable expectations regarding their key metrics." He says that troubles tend to spiral for a few qu…
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Axel Merk on the broader impact of an activist investor's approach
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14:54
Axel Merk, chief investment officer of the ASA Gold and Precious Metals, discusses the impact that Saba Capital Management is having on the fund and on shareholders as it entered the fund as an activist, moving to change the board as it pushes for a double-digit discount to be narrowed. Merk discusses the challenge of dealing with activist investor…
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abrdn's Omstead says the recent healthcare rally is just a start
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11:35
Dan Omstead, global head of health care investments at abrdn -- part of the team running the firm's Healthcare Investors, Life Science Investors, Healthcare Opportunities and World Healthcare funds -- says that after several years of struggling, the recent rally in health care and biotech is significant, the start of a positive trend that should be…
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Tough times for commercial real estate are making debt deals attractive
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11:09
Cory Johnson, chief executive officer at Pender Capital -- which runs the Pender Capital Real Estate Credit Fund, a closed-end debt interval fund -- says that there's "an abundance of very interesting opportunities" as the commercial real estate market goes through big changes as regional banks pull back from the sector and reduce liquidity for bor…
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Calamos' Kaufman on launching a new ETF of closed-end funds now
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13:17
Matt Kaufman, head of ETFs at Calamos Investments, says that years of experience running separately managed accounts of closed-end funds plus the firm's experience running closed-end funds -- as well as an investment environment where a fund that focuses on discounts had lots of investment prospects -- were part of the firm's thinking behind its ne…
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Examining BDCs and muni funds, and deciding between the two
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9:49
John Cole Scott, president of Closed-End Fund Advisors -- chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance -- looks at two asset classes that investors are turning to now for yields. While business development companies and municipal bond closed-end funds have low correlation, investors are looking at both asset types in order to raise yield leve…
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Regulatory capital relief securities add yield, diversification to banking portfolios
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10:39
Dana Staggs, president of ArrowMark Financial Corp. -- a non-diversified, closed-end fund that trades under ticker symbol BANX -- talks about why the fund has changed in recent years to where 87 percent of its holdings are now in regulatory capital relief securities, and what that esoteric asset can add to a diversified portfolio. Staggs also discu…
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abrdn's Mondillo: Downtrodden muni funds now represent a big opportunity
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10:14
Jonathan Mondillo, head of North American fixed income for abrdn, says the municipal bond market has been looking at a "teacup inversion," and as that changes when the Federal Reserve cuts rates later this year, it should set up well for a barbell approach, with the bargains and values being at the short and long ends of the curve. He notes that th…
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SCG's Merrill on how derivatives mitigate risk and goose equity returns.
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11:12
Ian Merrill, president of SCG Asset Management -- which runs The Alternative Strategies Income Fund, a continuously offered closed-end interval fund -- says that investors can change the risk-reward picture in equities by using derivatives to reduce risk but also set up the potential for higher income. He suggests that using derivatives allow a cla…
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VettaFi's Islam on the ETFs that are buying closed-end funds
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10:58
Roxanna Islam, head of sector and industry research at VettaFi, digs into the active and passive exchange-traded funds that invest in closed-end funds, looking at the choices, the new funds and the options investors have for buying ready-made portfolios of closed-end funds thanks to the simplicity of ETFs versus the chores of building their own por…
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Angel Oak's Pate sees opportunities in banking as rate cycle pivots
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10:33
Cheryl Pate, senior portfolio manager at Angel Oak Capital and manager of the Angel Oak Financial Strategies Income Term Trust, says that 2024 "will bring a still somewhat tough operating environment for the banks but net interest margins are abating, valuations are cheap and [mergers and acquisitions] activity should accelerate from here." That gi…
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CAIA's Filbeck on 'taking the alternative out of alternatives'
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12:54
Aaron Filbeck, managing director at the CAIA Association -- industry association for Chartered Alternative Investment Analysts -- says that the evolution of alternatives over the last few decades has made it to where it's naive for investors to effectively lump the wide range of investment options under the simple label of "alternatives." Filbeck, …
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2024 look-ahead: John Cole Scott on what the new year holds for closed-end funds
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14:23
John Cole Scott, president of Closed-End Fund Advisors -- chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance -- does his annual forecast for the year ahead, noting that he expects closed-end funds to outperform the general equity markets, and he expects a mild narrowing of discounts from current average levels of roughly 7 percent, noting that bond…
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2023 Year in Review: Closed-end funds bounce back, but leave room for more
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13:33
John Cole Scott - president of Closed-End Fund Advisors and the chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance - looks back at how the closed-end fund industry bounced back from the challenges of a terrible year in 2022, and how his forecasts from a year ago played out. He came out on the winning side of the ledger in his forecasts, but especia…
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Nuveen's Langenfeld: 'A timely opportunity' to invest in preferred securities
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10:43
Brenda Langenfeld, lead portfolio manager for the Nuveen Preferred and Income Opportunities Fund and the Nuveen Variable Rate Preferred and Income Fund, says that conditions are favorable on a number of different levels, setting up preferred securities for a strong year ahead as interest rates move lower in the year ahead. She noted that heightened…
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Thornburg's Sparkman lengthens maturities and leans international now
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9:46
Adam Sparkman, client portfolio manager at Thornburg -- part of the team running TBLD, the Thornburg Income Builder Opportunity Trust -- says that current market conditions favor the flexibility of a multi-asset approach, noting that "it's a different menu within fixed income entering 2024 than it was a couple of years ago." The changes in the rate…
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Abrdn's Taggart says discounts are 'overplayed'
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10:28
Mike Taggart, closed-end fund specialist at abrdn, says that the overwhelming majority of closed-end funds were created to generate income -- and built with that in mind -- but that the sector gets a lot of its attention as the result of discounts, and he feels the discount angle is "overplayed," because the investor who focuses on the income gets …
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ASA Gold's Merk on how precious metals will respond in a coming recession
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10:26
Axel Merk, chief investment officer for the ASA Gold and Precious Metals fund, says that gold prices are most tightly correlated to "the confidence the market has in the central bank to manage inflation over time," so gold's rally over the last six weeks -- as well as its path forward -- is "favorable because we might be entering a recession, most …
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Let's go Black Friday discount shopping with John Cole Scott
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12:45
John Cole Scott, president of Closed-End Fund Advisors and the chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance, tackles the biggest shopping day of the year closed-end fund style, talking about where discounts stand in general for the industry, but also hunting for year-end bargains and looking at three cases to determine whether the Black Frida…
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Sit Invest's Doty on muni-bond discounts and how they will be trimmed
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11:33
Bryce Doty, senior portfolio manager at Sit Investment Associates, says that muni-bond closed-end funds using leverage -- where the cost of their borrowings are effectively wiping out returns given current conditions -- are more interested in keeping fees high than making money for shareholders, which is one reason why his firm has become a more ac…
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Abrdn's Purington: Exxon, Chevron deals will trigger an infrastructure merger wave
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11:42
Eric Purington, portfolio manager for the Aberdeen Global Infrastructure Income Fund, says that two mega-mergers outside of the infrastructure space -- deals involving upstream energy giants Exxon and Chevron -- have a lot of implications for middle-market/midstream energy companies and infrastructure stocks. Purington says that the larger energy c…
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