- BMO Private Bank CIO Jack Ablin likes to gauge investor sentiment by looking at closed-end funds, particularly the gulf between price and net asset value.
- As far as high-yield goes, the ten largest junk CEFs are currently trading at an 11% median discount, reflecting some level of concern, but nowhere near the panicky 30% discount at the height of the financial crisis.
- Fair enough, says Barron's Chris Dieterich, but that 11% discount is still the widest since 2009, and far greater than the spread seen during 2013's "taper tantrum," or during the volatile time after S&P downgrade the U.S. in 2011. Unless the gulf is a sign of worse things to come, now just might be the time to go shopping for high-yield.
- ETFs: HYG, JNK, HYLD, SJB, ANGL, HYLS, UJB, XOVR, QLTC