JonD

Publicly Traded Airports: A Useful Benchmark?

Roger, how do you feel about pipelines (I own TYG) and other infrastructure sectors such as toll roads and utilities?

Publicly Traded Airports: A Useful Benchmark?

specific airports owned/operated by MGU-owned holding cos. include Paris, Vienna, Zurich, Auckland and Thailand (6 of them).

Publicly Traded Airports: A Useful Benchmark?

Roger, you should look at MGU --- public infrastructure CEF advised by Macquarie. unlike MIC, though, MGU only invests in public companies so no self-serving mark-to-model funny business.

as of 3/31/08, MGU had 11.9% of its NAV in public airports. other interesting (non-correlated, alpha generating) infrastructure sectors include toll roads, pipelines, water utilities, etc. (all publicly traded).

and pretty reasonable expense ratio for a levered actively managed CEF (the MER on etfconnect.com is wrong, btw).

lots of international diversification, too, and just for you and your clients and readers, it's on sale right now at a 6.0% discount to its NAV.

ETF Analysis: Bottom-Up vs. Forward Looking

ummmm.. i guess i'm talking about all of the articles on this web site plus lots of articles in various newspapers and other web sites. it's hard to be specific b/c there's so many published every day. i will direct you to a dictionary to understand what "well above average" means.

Why Closed-End Funds Don't Work for Most Investors

i agree, Roger. there are much more efficient ways to invest in mainstream markets (such as domestic equity) but CEFs are great for niche asset sectors that may not be large enough to support an OEF. and CEFs typically utilize a bit of leverage which, when used in moderation, can give them an edge over ETFs. the downside is the NAV discounts (or premia) depending on whether you are a buyer or a seller and the relatively high management fees.

i personally own the following

JRO (from Nuveen) --- floating rate fixed income
JPS (also Nuveen) --- diversified preferred equity
TYG (from Tortoise) --- collection of pipeline MLPs
MGU (from Macquarie) --- collection of publicly traded global infrastructure assets

also, as you mention, muni bond and foreign bond CEFs are attractive as well.

ETF Analysis: Bottom-Up vs. Forward Looking

Roger, your criticism is misguided and a bit hypocritical (if i may be so bold). the first and third major sections of the article sound exactly like something you would write --- a logical and fact-based dissection/comparison of different ETFs in a given asset class. and the section you focus your criticism on, ironically, also could have come from your pen/keyboard as you often explicitly (or implicitly) offer market timing suggestions for certain subsectors of the asset universe all the time.

i read most of the current ETF articles and this one is well above average relative to the incessant drivel of articles warning of "thinly sliced ETFs dangerous to your investing health."

Warming Up To International Real Estate Funds

also FIREX for an OEF.

but i think the long-term choice is the yet to be released ETF from iShares called ishares FTSE NAREIT Global Real Estate ex-US -- it's expected to have expense ratio of 0.48% (no way IRFAX can overcome that advantage, as an aside -- Dan, I assume you are a broker!!). don't know all the details yet since it hasn't started trading but i expect i to be similar to RWX (one of the fastest growing ETF launches in history) but at a lower ER (.48 vs. .60 for RWX) and I believe will have an even broader index to which it will track.

i personally own EGLRX but will switch to the ishares product when it launches.

International Fixed Income - Get To Know It

thanks. does anyone have a suggestion? i can't believe there is no product available for US investors here.

Choosing an Emerging Market Debt CEF: The Case For Western Asset Emerging Markets Debt Fund

can you recommend a Foreign *CORPORATE* bond CEF?

thanks

International Fixed Income - Get To Know It

Roger,

I agree with you.

I already own PIMCO Foreign Bond (PFORX) and Payden Emerging Mkt Bond (PYEMX). both of these funds (like it seems all foreign bond funds) own almost entirely sovereign issues. they've performed well for me. Btw, they are both USD hedged funds so I don't get the weak dollar exposure (these days) but i also don't have foreign currency volatility to worry about (no one remembers how this feels).

here's my question...
I'd like to have exposure to foreign CORPORATE debt (investment grade and/or high yield) but cannot find any vehicle to do so. Do you know of any CEFs (or OEFs) that hold foreign CORPORATE debt (vs. sovereign debt)

thanks,
Jon

Financial Screens and Fund Performance Measurement

agree, Geoff. in evaluating any active (or passive) fund, you have to look under the hood at what their holdings are pick an appropriate benchmark (or blend of benchmarks) to compare it to.

keep up the good work.

Financial Screens and Fund Performance Measurement

Geoff, great work as always. The basic idea behind your article is great --- that a portfolio of top-performing funds should be compared to a blend of appropriate benchmarks (inc. international, small cap, etc.) and not just the S&P 500, which seems to be the only benchmark mainstream magazines have ever heard of.

BUT why can't you give these PM's any credit for actively making the decision to overweight raw materials, energy and utilities?

it's gotta be tough to be an active PM - even when you're right, you're wrong!!

First-Ever International Real Estate ETF Launched

https://ssgafunds.com/etf/fund...

doesn't have performance by country but does have holdings by security and by country.

can someone tell me why all of this and all of the domestic REIT products *exclude* Timber REITs? makes no sense to me. first of all, there's fewer than 10 of them worldwide so why bother excluding them. second, what business is *more* tied to the actual real estate (LAND) than Timber?

Recognizing Leverage In The CEF-PGF Comparison

good point. yes, where is the yield for PGF?

it looks like BPP might have lower credit quality and the majority of its holdings are categorized as "other" whereas PGF is all financials (both according to ETFConnect.com).

I own Nuveen's JPS, yielding 7.5% today, nearly the same as BPP's 7.6%, but at only a 1.28% premium vs. BPP's 7.13%. Also, relative to BPP, JPS is more diversified (by industry), has slightly lower leverage (31.44% vs. 33.80%) and a lower fee structure (.96% vs. 1.26%). all according to ETFConnect.com. no data on JPS's credit quality.

i own a couple of Nuveen CEFs - (JPS and JRO) --- generally speaking, I think they are cheaper than like product from BlackRock - don't know why. perhaps b/c of the greater publicity from the Merill Lynch merger.

and I prefer them to PGF, too, for reasons you already highlighted.

A Smorgasboard of ETF Ideas

great idea, Roger. I've often felt compelled to send a simple letter as such to SSgA, Barclay's, etc...

I believe the International REIT ETF is coming soon (btw, this asset class is very under-owned IMHO and you'll be seeing a lot more product and awareness directed at this area in 2007).

the Preferred ETF is already here (see a couple of posts below this today).

I've been waiting for an International small/mid cap equity ETF for years (literally). the Wisdom Tree offerings come the closest but i don't buy into this mickey-mouse active dividend strategy so I'm still waiting!

the Global Timber ETF would be great. I know I've asked for one on this web site before. don't know if that's my listing there! in the mean time, since there aren't that many public timber names I created my own market-weighted timber index fund by buying PCL, RYN, PCH, LFB on the NYSE and Timberwest Forest and Acadian Timber on the Canadian exchanges.

it would be tough to have an MLP ETF b/c of the K-1 requirements. Tortoise Energy (TYG) is a CEF that owns a pretty diversified portfolio of relevant mid-stream MLPs. IndexInvestor.com this month recommended this as a diversifying asset class (but failed to mention TYG in its similar lament that there is no index ETF here).

generally speaking, bonds and index ETFs are really just not very compatible b/c there are literally thousands and thousands (perhaps 10s of thousands or more) of individual bond issues. it's just not practical to put that in an index ETF product. but there are some solid, low expense CEFs covering all flavors of bond asset classes.

good luck with your with list!