Income Investors: Have An Open Mind For Closed-End Funds [View article]
oldman... i provided my thesis on this particular fund above. It's certainly not for everyone, and given Alpine's pretty miserable track record, I can understand your view.
Income Investors: Have An Open Mind For Closed-End Funds [View article]
Varan.. interesting... quarterly cyclicality? I've simply just held AWF, I don't really have a trading strategy in place for CEFs, I typically employ a buy and hold strategy.
Income Investors: Have An Open Mind For Closed-End Funds [View article]
GD, if they were charging a reasonable fee of say 1.25%, your yield would be better than 10%. I don't like self-serving, greedy mgmt., unless they consistently demonstrate their worthiness.
Income Investors: Have An Open Mind For Closed-End Funds [View article]
Lee, I hesitated in mentioning anything that I owned because it was really separate from the overall crux of the article. I did so to demonstrate three areas that I have chosen to utilize CEFs because I found management and investment value there.
I've provided a link to Alpine's annual report for AWP. http://bit.ly/KRMSYU The fund has exposure to both traditional brick and mortar REITs as well as limited exposure to mREITs, which are discussed in the report and found in the schedule of holdings. I found Alpine's liberal view of the REIT space actually positive, since I've been hesitant to pick any mREIT on my own. I now have diversified exposure to many things in AWP. I cherry picked tickers that I thought most investors would be familiar with.
Hopefully this makes things a bit clearer.
On the tax issue, I think I mentioned to another commenter that REIT distributions are typically classified as non-qualified dividend income, which as you mention would be taxable at the holder's ordinary rate.
Income Investors: Have An Open Mind For Closed-End Funds [View article]
GD, it is extremely diversified, yields roughly 7.5-8%. I think a 1.5% mgmt. fee for a fund of funds and an index-like portfolio composition is way too much to pay. And that's on top of the expenses paid to the underlying funds. So you're paying more like 2.5%, perhaps more, in overall fees to own this thing.
Plus, you're dealing with a difficult to assess level of leverage, although a cursory look at the holdings makes me believe it's pretty high.
Having said all that, it provides broad CEF exposure and there's little to no "blow-up" risk, as you mention, from an individual CEF standpoint, if that's part of your rationale for owning it.
Bottom line, I think it is what it is. If you're hesitant in owning individual CEFs, but like exposure to the group, this is a good choice.
Income Investors: Have An Open Mind For Closed-End Funds [View article]
surf, thanks for the contribution. The key for all is to understand the leverage component and make thoughtful decisions for one's portfolio based on the knowledge.
Income Investors: Have An Open Mind For Closed-End Funds [View article]
Dell, good point. I think the instant diversification gained from a CEF portfolio certainly offsets some of the negatives that I mentioned in my article.
Income Investors: Have An Open Mind For Closed-End Funds [View article]
Sid, see my above post on GGN. Nothing particularly wrong here, but I'm not bullish on precious metals. The fund has lost some ground as of late, but still trades at a premium.
Income Investors: Have An Open Mind For Closed-End Funds [View article]
rick...glad you found the article helpful. I recently sold GGN. I've become negative on gold in general, and despite exposure to energy as well, I saw that the fund started trading at a high premium to NAV and I decided to exit. Fundamentally seems like a well run fund, but I decided it wasn't for me anymore.
PCEF I'm less familiar with, but I see it is a fund of funds, similar to FOF, run by Cohen and Steers. I think it's a good idea if managed properly. FOF owns over 100 funds, which is way too many, in my view.
RIck, plenty of CEFs distribute income only. CEFconnect.com is a great site to access CEF data.
Income Investors: Have An Open Mind For Closed-End Funds [View article]
rc, thx for the input. I agree that a discount does not guarantee anything. To me, the discount is a way of picking up something for nothing, all else equal. If there's an identifiable reason for the discount, with no reasonable thought as to it ever narrowing, then it's probably not a worthwhile investment.
3 Warning Signs Of An Imminent Dividend Cut [View article]
3 Warning Signs Of An Imminent Dividend Cut [View article]
Have wanted to pull the trigger on PBI as well, but I'm not as comfortable with their very near-term outlook.
Income Investors: Have An Open Mind For Closed-End Funds [View article]
Income Investors: Have An Open Mind For Closed-End Funds [View article]
Income Investors: Have An Open Mind For Closed-End Funds [View article]
Income Investors: Have An Open Mind For Closed-End Funds [View article]
Income Investors: Have An Open Mind For Closed-End Funds [View article]
Income Investors: Have An Open Mind For Closed-End Funds [View article]
I've provided a link to Alpine's annual report for AWP. http://bit.ly/KRMSYU The fund has exposure to both traditional brick and mortar REITs as well as limited exposure to mREITs, which are discussed in the report and found in the schedule of holdings. I found Alpine's liberal view of the REIT space actually positive, since I've been hesitant to pick any mREIT on my own. I now have diversified exposure to many things in AWP. I cherry picked tickers that I thought most investors would be familiar with.
Hopefully this makes things a bit clearer.
On the tax issue, I think I mentioned to another commenter that REIT distributions are typically classified as non-qualified dividend income, which as you mention would be taxable at the holder's ordinary rate.
Income Investors: Have An Open Mind For Closed-End Funds [View article]
Plus, you're dealing with a difficult to assess level of leverage, although a cursory look at the holdings makes me believe it's pretty high.
Having said all that, it provides broad CEF exposure and there's little to no "blow-up" risk, as you mention, from an individual CEF standpoint, if that's part of your rationale for owning it.
Bottom line, I think it is what it is. If you're hesitant in owning individual CEFs, but like exposure to the group, this is a good choice.
Income Investors: Have An Open Mind For Closed-End Funds [View article]
Income Investors: Have An Open Mind For Closed-End Funds [View article]
Income Investors: Have An Open Mind For Closed-End Funds [View article]
Income Investors: Have An Open Mind For Closed-End Funds [View article]
PCEF I'm less familiar with, but I see it is a fund of funds, similar to FOF, run by Cohen and Steers. I think it's a good idea if managed properly. FOF owns over 100 funds, which is way too many, in my view.
RIck, plenty of CEFs distribute income only. CEFconnect.com is a great site to access CEF data.
Income Investors: Have An Open Mind For Closed-End Funds [View article]
As I mentioned above, I believe a discount when looked at in conjunction with other CEF fundamentals can be a compelling data point.
Income Investors: Have An Open Mind For Closed-End Funds [View article]