quality

Deutsche Bank's DWS Fund: Beyond the Ethical Edge

A perceptive piece to be sure. But it was heavy going.

Would hope that at some point you would accept a dircetor's chair. I think you could add a lot to the governance of a cef.

Your writings highlight how awkward the cef format is and why the etf format is far superior. If the discount is deep enough and the board takes its fiduciary responsibilities seriously then a cef can become a credible investment choice. At least a modest discount must always be carried in any cef to account for the problems you highlight.

DWS Real Estate Fund II: Expect Shareholders to Succeed with Liquidation at Full NAV

You have added some solid intel about publicly disclosed info that was not widely publicized. The fact that a majoriy of shares did cast ballots on the question of liquiidation of SRO should mean that it can be accomplished with another attempt .

As the would-be new manager was able to only garner 1/3 of the votes cast it may inspire a reconsideration of the likelhood of acquisition of the management contract and thus from my perch it looks like they'd bite on the next chance. It would would have been cheaper and certainly more effective for them to simply have bought the contracts from DWS. That may well be the route they'll follow in the future for other such situations. This time though all shareholders would seem likely to benefit with a second vote. that should pass.

The Curious Case of DWS Investments

I find it interesting that the Horjesi group has cited this article in their SEC filing regarding SRO & SRQ. Ithat will hopefully prompt a wider audience to read it.

SRO, SRQ Update: Becoming More Curious

Gwailo,

Glad to see your old fabled name resurface. The cef community of investors badly needs your expertise. The more you can comment the better.

if you could be involved in some sor of official capacity in any cef, your very prescence in some sort of capacity would make me more inclined to hold or invest and I suspect there are many others of similar inclination and would be many more if you stepped on to a wider stage.

Let's here more

Adams Express: A Cheap Closed-End Fund

In looking deeper at the situatin I discovered I had not included a few small divis in the calculation of the total NAV return for ADX. Turns out the 5 year compound NAV return is 7.07% when those corrections were made. Still short of the S & P 500 index and even the SPY's performance but somewhat better nonetheless.

Adams Express: A Cheap Closed-End Fund

I appreciate the disclaimer note of Adamse, but I questioned the chart posted on the Adams Express website for the 5 yr performance history of ADX and the S & P 500 figure as well for that matter although the posted S & P 500 value is close enough to the SPY results to be possibly correct. The 5 yr chart on the Adams site for the S & P 500 shows a total annualized return of 7.6% through 6/30/08 yet the SPY showsannual return of only 7.42%.. There of course is some drag but I thought that a little high as the operating charges for SPY are soo modest. Still all and all they are close enough for Gvt work.

But the #s for ADX are way off. There is no way that the NAV return for ADX has exceeded even the SPY results let alone the index itself. The NAV return for ADX has averaged only 6.75% per year for the 5 years since 6/30/03.

Doing the #s there were dist/divs of $4.44 over 5 years on an intitial NAV of 13.06 with a close NAV on 6/30/08 of only $13.74. No way does that add up to an 8% compound annual rate. To get an 8% return in 5 years NAV would have had to rise to $19.18, less the effect of div compounding, or ADX would had to pay out $5.20 plus in divs/dist over the 5 years or some combination in-between to get to an 8% return.

Only if the chart took the NAV div and then blended into at market discount and then valued the principal at NAV might one calc the higher 8% figure, but that's not possible as the principal would have to valued at mkt if your reupping at mkt. Incidentally the mkt return on ADX was less than the NAV return, because the discount increased from 03 to 08 from 9.6% to 13.1%. That could mean mkt returns will be better for the next 5 years but it definitely hurt mkt returns for the past 5 years.

Home Builders Reluctant to Shrink Footprint

Good points about the local character of the building industry. Your subject title is well supported by the text.

Some of the builders will have to cut back or I believe many of them will fail unless they are willing to add equity capital at discounts to their posted book values.

Morgan Stanley: What's Behind Mexico's Extraordinary Resilience?

Interesting thesis that the current Mexican administration is underplaying the changes in energy policy to soften political opposition. Its a provacative observation and may well be true. I think by hook or by crook Mexico has gotten a good administration that is showing an impressive level of competence.