Nuveen Dumps Its CEF Website

Things must be tough at Nuveen.

It looks as though in an effort to cut costs they’ve replaced a superior ETFConnect.com with an inferior CEFConnect.com. It also appears that they replaced Lipper, which I believe was the previous data provider for ETFConnect.com, with Morningstar.

The new website is basically a warmed over Morningstar website for CEFs—it’s the same information. What you end up with is a lot less information and data configured for obfuscation.

As with credit rating companies who rated junk “AAA”, Morningstar doesn’t seem to have a clue as to configure data for the purpose of making an investment decision. As an illustration, their CEF rating system is based on their past performance to which they admit has no predictive value. Their rating system would be incredibly helpful if an investor was driving backwards.

Having the ability to compare CEFs with ETFs on a comparable platform was very helpful. Additionally, the ability to see historical numerical data on one page as opposed to having to flip through it year-by-year was an important analytical tool. I guess, in the case of Morningstar, when you don't have to make an investment decision, these issues are not important.

I’m sorry to see ETFconnect.com be retired and have it replaced with an albatross for the purpose of CEF investment analysis. We can only hope that there will be incremental improvements over time.

Comments

[prairiedog555:]

what's up with that? The new etfconnect site stinks.

Sep 23 08:23 AM

[Mike T:]

I'll second that last comment. I've used etfconnect for well over a year to check premium/discount. Try to do that today. They just had to screw up something that was working very well.

Sep 23 08:27 AM

[Internet2k4:]

ETFconnect will be misssed. I'll be much less likely to even consider CEFs when they don't share a search results screen with comparable ETFs. One less bookmark.

Sep 23 08:42 AM

[Ron Rowland:]

They have taken one of the best properties in the business and destroyed it. The void is wide open. Who is going to fill it?

Sep 23 08:52 AM

[jst4kdsnh:]

try www.closed-endfunds.com/ for information on closed end funds

Sep 23 09:24 AM

[YoYoMama:]

Have you guys registered at cefconnect.com with your email & password?

If you do, you will find you can obtain the same information you found on etfconnect.com.

You can't get to that information without registering....

Sep 23 09:34 AM

[kmagic:]

We of the SBS also mourn the loss of ETFConnect relative to both CEFS and ETFS and ETNS. Before ETFConnect was firing on all cylinders there was

www.cefa.com/

People may want to gravitate to that site to secure information they might need relative to the decision support/making process.


On Sep 23 08:23 AM prairiedog555 wrote:

> what's up with that? The new etfconnect site stinks.

Sep 23 09:38 AM

[ETFdesk.com:]

Well there is always ETFDESK.com. Search ETFs/CEFs by sector, asset class, daily volume, country of origin, industry, fund sponsor. There is a reverse search for ETFs which allows to find ETFs that include a certain holding.

Also, the WaysToPlay feature is a user-generated tool which pairs news articles, blog posts, econ releases, etc with ETFs.. to generate investment ideas

Sep 23 10:03 AM

[Analyste de...:]

The Death of Free, yet again. Get used to it folks!

Sep 23 05:23 PM

[icon360:]

You can't get the same information - even if you register. The new site w/o the ETF's stinks...........


On Sep 23 09:34 AM YoYoMama wrote:

> Have you guys registered at cefconnect.com with your email &
> password?
>
> If you do, you will find you can obtain the same information you
> found on etfconnect.com.
>
> You can't get to that information without registering....

Sep 23 05:47 PM

[Joe Snow:]

Some of us value services that allow us to maintain our anonymity more than services that give us more information than we need that require we give up personal information to access it.


On Sep 23 09:34 AM YoYoMama wrote:

> Have you guys registered at cefconnect.com with your email &
> password?
>
> If you do, you will find you can obtain the same information you
> found on etfconnect.com.
>
> You can't get to that information without registering....

Oct 11 09:28 AM