willydo

9% Yields Still Available on Municipal Bond Funds

Garrett,

Why are closed in Muni Funds selling off today? NZF is off 3.5%. I see dividends are coming out next Tues but I have not seen these funds drop this much before. Is anything else going on? (IMT, IIM, NZF, MUA)
Thanks,
Willydo

9% Yields Still Available on Municipal Bond Funds

Garrett,
Very informative article. I have been using these funds a lot and do own NZF as one you mention above. There are some of these funds with lower costs but may have different characteristics as well. One is MUA. It has cost of .69%, provides 9.8% yield and is only leveraged 3.8 %. It has lower quality bonds but that is relative. I treat these more or less just like stocks. If they are hurt when rates finally rise, I will sell them but I have held them for many months now. I also hold Insured Muni's that pay a bit less but are very stable and have been around since 1993. (IMT, IIM)
Thanks,
Willydo

CEFs Week of 10/2/09; Wall of Worry

Two Pimco floating rate funds (PFN, PFL) dropped over 6% in one day (Friday). They did declare dividends earlier in the week and the amount was the same as it has been in recent months. ???

Willydo

CEFs Week of 9/25/09; Death of a Friend

Watch OUT for Cushing Total Return MLP (SRV). I owned this previously and got burned badly. I believe there was a lot of insider trading because the stock fell for no reason until an "announcement" was made. There were a lot of problems and conference calls but I would never trade the CEF again. There is a reason the chart looks like it does.

Nuveen Trashes Its CEF Website

I spoke too quickly. I was not using the new CEF Connect features correctly. There is more information there than I originally thought....you just have to look for it differently. It is not as easy as the old site but the information seems comparable.

Willydo

Nuveen Trashes Its CEF Website

I can't even get the new site to display a CEF. It will only display an ETF.

Anyway, the data is not useful at all. It does not show the historical yearly performance, history of dividends, current ratings of holdings, level of leverage, starting date of the fund, etc.

Wow, one of the tools I used on a daily basis is now gone.
Willydo

A Personal Perspective on Healthcare Reform

Good article and I wish more people could see it this way rather than being so short sighted. I read about a year ago about how one of the nonpartisan think tanks did a study of all of the western countries and found that France had the best overall system. The people were happy with it, the statistics showed positive outcomes (much higher than ours) AND it did not cost an inordinate proportion of their budget.
So we don't have to re-invent the wheel. We could look at that system and a few others and tailor it to fit the US. None of them are perfect but we need to do something. I bet that none of the people shouting out against health care changes has a pre-existing condition that makes it impossible to get insurance at any price. Oh, I have T.Row Price Health Sciences Fund (PRHSX) and it's been doing quite well in my 401K. Also have very good coverage through work.
Willydo

What if it is a “V” Recovery?

Steve,
Thanks for the article and especially the insight into the ECRI indicators and how they differ from what we are able to see. Your questions were exactly what I think most of us would want to ask. Hat tip to Lakshman Achuthan for being willing to share some information about the process.

Willydo

CEF Weekly Review: Convert Funds Lead

Thanks Joe; always a great array of information. The more I read about CEF's, the more cautious of them I become. Now there are clearly some flags on funds that have huge premiums, but there are others that seem to trade a bit above average but then drop a bomb and reduce the dividend without much warning.
I was looking at one of your recent articles on FOF (fund of funds) as a way to smooth out the risk of getting hit by a shock to price but even that fund is (according to the article) probably is going to have to reduce its yield. I'm not sure how one is supposed to know that. It put out a consistent .12 per share for 10 months in a row and now went to .27 per share for the last two months for a yield of 9%. Apparently this is not sustainable.
So it looks like the only thing a person can do is pick funds that are paying about avg. yield, otherwise one risks a hit to the fund price; just have to have tight trailing stops and treat exactly like stocks.
Willydo

Friday Outlook: Rage Against the Machine

David,
I think the most important issue in your article has been overlooked in these comments. I would be very interested to learn your opinion on the piece about the pending huge shortfall of US debt referred to above. (sprott.com/Docs/market...)

As you ask, what would your asset allocations be to try and deal with this? Also wondered if it could even lead to the US selling its gold reserves just cause they need the money.
Thanks,
Willydo

Japan (And Its ETF): Continued Weakness

Carl,
Good information; thanks for telling it like it is. I can't count how many articles I've seen in the past 3 months saying how hot Japan is going to be. Based on what?? Every indicator is falling.

Just 'cause something is cheap doesn't mean it's ready for a rebound.
Thanks,
Willydo

PIMCO High Income Fund: Substantially Overvalued?

Joe,

Thanks for the great information. Your analysis logic for this fund can be applied to any funds so it is very useful information.

Willydo
Tucson

Market Outlook: Time to Assume a Defensive Position

I thought this was an excellent article. Not a lot of wiggle room, just the facts and straight forward prediction. I think Prieur is right on with this analysis. Thanks for following and cutting through the BS.
It is somewhat hard to imagine that the markets will turn down just as all of them have crossed their 200 MA and the ECRI is definitely pointing to the end of the recession in a few months. But I guess the market got ahead of itself; that's what I make of it.
Willydo
Tucson Arizona

ECRI: Weekly Leading Index at 18 Month High

Steve,

I could not find the other article you refer to above that was published today. I normally get them both.

Thank you,
Willydo

Best Investments for Rising Oil? High Dividend Energy Stocks

Cliff,

Good article. I do think the special tax situation required when investors file their income tax should be mentioned, however. (when owning mlp's etc.). Many may favor MLP funds over direct ownership.

Willydo