The NAVigator

Stephen Davis, closed-end fund product specialist at Nuveen , says that while 2025 was a strong year for closed-end fund performance, price returns exceeded net asset value (NAV) gains, reflecting a narrowing of discounts, continuing a trend from 2024. Those narrower discounts will make it harder for that broad trend to continue in 2026, but he noted that municipal bonds and senior loans are two a...

Kimberly Flynn, President at XA Investments , discussed the just-launched XAI Interval Fund Credit Index, which tracks the performance of non-listed closed-end interval funds and tender offer funds in the alternative-credit space, and how having the benchmark should help investors as they look at adding private credit and other alternatives to their portfolios. Flynn says the new index — which is...

John Cole Scott, President of CEF Advisors , reviews the forecasts he made a year ago for 2025, grading his wins and losses on everything from inflation levels and Treasury yields to discount levels and the outcome in various sectors of the closed-end fund industry. Scott, the chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance , also reviews the five funds he identified as buys for 2025 and how th...

John Cole Scott, President of CEF Advisors , climbs his mountain of data to get a great view on the year ahead, and he's forecasting no recession, lower inflation and modest GDP growth for 2026, with less volatility coming from the rate picture but more market tension due to the global macro picture. Scott, who also serves as chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance , also discusses what...

Richard Stone, Chief Executive Officer for The Association of Investment Companies (the British equivalent to the Active Investment Company Alliance ), discusses differences in the activist investor cultures in the United States and Great Britain, noting that the British model is more about engagement with the board and a collaborative effort to improve the business, while the U.S. model has shift...

Bryce Doty, senior portfolio manager at Sit Investment Associates , says that "every time a new Fed chair comes in, they do something dumb," and with Jerome Powell on his way out as the chairman of the Federal Reserve, he expects some chaos that will create opportunities, potentially as soon as the next chairman of the central bank is announced. "The interpretation — and mis-interpretation — of wh...

Long-time activist investor Phil Goldstein of Bulldog Investors sat down with NAVigator host Chuck Jaffe at the Active Investment Company Alliance Fall Roundtable in New York City on Nov. 19 to discuss the current state of shareholder activism and why there seems to be so much less of it than there was just a few years back. While there have been moves and regulations that have made it harder for...

John Cole Scott, President of CEF Advisors , looks at tax-loss selling season and whether it has started yet, noting that a few asset classes have largely been able to avoid situations where there will be widespread harvesting this year, while others (most notably business-development companies) may be poised for a lot of tax-driven reshuffling before year's end. Scott, who is the chairman of the...

The Active Investment Company Alliance held its annual Fall Roundtable in New York City on Nov. 19, and NAVigator host Chuck interviewed Ryan Paylor, Portfolio Manager at Thomas J. Herzfeld Advisors, which recently converted a closed-end fund from a focus on companies located in the Caribbean Basin — ticker Symbol CUBA — to one focused on collateralized loan obligations. Paylor explains the thinki...

Consumers have a tradition of going bargain hunting on Black Friday, but The NAVigator has a day-after-Thanksgiving ritual too, looking for discounts on closed-end funds with John Cole Scott, President of CEF Advisors and The Chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance . For the fourth straight year, he's looking at market bargains in time for the holiday, and this year he is looking at two...

In an interview recorded at the Active Investment Company Alliance Fall Round Table in New York City on Wednesday, Nov. 19, David Tepper of Tepper Capital Management talks about the state of the closed-end fund business, ranging from the classic funds he has held for a many years to his concerns about the boom in private credit, the potential for trouble if the economy turns and what he might be l...

Josh Duitz, Global Head of Income for Aberdeen — Manager of the Aberdeen Total Dynamic Dividend Fund — talks about where he is finding success in generating elevated income at a time when rate cuts are making it harder for investors to earn easy yields. Duitz discusses international investing and whether the rally overseas can continue in the face of reduced currency impacts, where high-flyers lik...

Seth Brufsky, Chief Executive Officer for the Ares Dynamic Credit Allocation Fund , talks about how the start of rate cuts and a falling interest rate environment impacts high-yield bonds, leveraged loans and collateralized loan obligations, noting that fixed-rate high-yield investments should get a boost from lower rates, but that the floating-rate paper also can benefit thanks to better arbitrag...

Ravi Chintapalli, Client Portfolio Manager covering leveraged finance for the Nuveen Global Fixed Income team , says that he has never seen a high-yield market that has been higher quality than what he is seeing now. That helps to explain tighter spreads, and suggests they should not shy away from high-yield because they're being compensated for "the true level of default risk in the market." On t...

Discount-capture investor Rob Shaker, Portfolio Manager at Shaker Financial Services , says that he's "not seeing anything in the closed-end fund space that would point to any type of bubble conditions." He sees generic, slow widening of discounts happening now, mostly due to a mix of year-end tax-loss moves starting now and some fund-specific actions, rather than because investors have lost faith...

John Cole Scott, President of CEF Advisors , discusses the changing landscape of business-development companies and the details he gleaned from attending the recent Eversheds BDC Roundtable, which focused on legislative and other issues that are creating challenges and opportunities for the industry. Scott, the Chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance , weighs in on the potential for cha...

Drake Hicks, Head of Impact Investing at Variant Investments , discusses the unusual intersection of closed-end funds with impact investing, which goes beyond ESG (environmental, social and government principles) to invest in projects which have a purpose beyond just a profit margin. The firm runs the Variant Impact Fund, a high-yield closed-end interval fund whose assets are aligned with the Unit...

Ray DiBernardo, Portfolio Manager of the XAI Madison Equity Premium Income fund , says that covered-call strategies have become increasingly popular of late, as investors want to goose income while reducing market risk. DiBernardo, an analyst at Madison Investments, notes that investors have been intrigued by covered-call strategies for about two decades, but the availability of more options-based...

John Cole Scott, President of CEF Advisors , talks about how current conditions have made for nervous times in the business-development company space, and he looks at history to determine whether the risks are systemic rather than situational. The conversation looks at how the BDC space has gotten extensive scrutiny recently from the Financial Times and on sites like Seeking Alpha, with some obser...

Axel Merk, Chief Investment Officer of the ASA Gold and Precious Metals Fund , says that while gold has been rolling this year, the start of rate cuts along with a weakening dollar and persistent geopolitical risks (including tariffs) make it that there is no end in sight for the precious metals rally to continue. ASA Gold, which invests largely in junior mining companies, is up more than 100 perc...

John Cole Scott, President of CEF Advisors , acknowledges how many consumers shy away from closed-end funds, fearing complexity or an investment type they don't fully understand. The chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance would obviously favor closed-end funds, but he sizes up situations where a closed-end fund and an ETF or a fund-of-funds cover the same asset class and why he would c...

In this interview from the "Money Life with Chuck Jaffe" podcast, John Cole Scott, President of CEF Advisors , discusses his "trifecta analysis" of closed-end funds and how he will frequently add or drop funds to take advantage of market conditions and make the most of tax circumstances, capturing incremental gains and minimizing incremental losses to squeeze the client's desired result in their p...

Rob Thummel, Senior Portfolio Manager at Tortoise Capital , says that this is "the best time I have ever seen" in a three-decade career to be investing in energy. Thummel, who manages Tortoise Energy Infrastructure, notes that the U.S. has grown into the largest energy producer and energy exporter in the world, but that it now needs expanded infrastructure to build on that leadership position. Mor...

Kimberly Flynn, President at XA Investments , discusses the recent executive order signed by President Trump that allows a dramatic expansion of alternative assets to be part of 401(k) and other retirement plans. While the headlines have made it seem like crypto bros will blow up their retirement plans with alternatives, Flynn discusses how many firms running life-cycle and target-date funds may d...

Mitchel Penn, Managing Director of Equity Research for Oppenheimer & Co. , says that business-development companies are now "fairly valued" by the market, which means that their biggest potential gains for the remainder of the year will come from simply capturing dividend payouts. In 2026, with the industry likely facing interest rate cuts, BDCs will see their return on equity shrink in line with...