The NAVigator

Roxanna Islam, head of sector and industry research at VettaFi , says that cautious retail investors have been looking for safety and yield and that while closed-end funds have traditionally filled that bill, investors in ETFs that buy closed-end funds have been avoiding a lot of the struggles by turning elsewhere to invest. She believes that could be changing, however, as investors recognize the...

Robert Bush, director of closed-end products at Calamos Investments , says that with risk-free money from bank accounts and Treasury bonds at high levels -- and with leverage costs up in response to those higher rates -- investors can have a lot of choices for good income without ever considering closed-end funds. But with the average closed-end fund discount widening from roughly 8 percent at the...

Duncan Farley, portfolio manager for BlueBay Asset Management -- manager of the BlueBay Destra International Event-Driven Credit Fund -- says that the rising cost of capital for businesses and interest rates that are staying higher for longer is creating more "special situations" opportunities and that it's not too late for investors to take advantage of those credits despite several years of stro...

John Cole Scott, president of Closed-End Fund Advisors -- and the chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance -- returns to The NAVigator noting that the discounts on muni funds have continued to get wider. He notes that the average discount for a closed-end muni fund stands now at 12.5 percent compared to their 10-year average of just under 5 percent, and talks about what is discouraging i...

Colin McBurnette, senior portfolio manager at the Angel Oak Funds , says that while high-rate and high-inflationary conditions have made a lot of investors worry about the housing market, those conditions -- along with wide spreads and low housing stocks creating an imbalance in the supply-and-demand dynamic -- have created real opportunities in the space. The tight market has made the housing mar...

Mitchel Penn, managing director of equity research at Oppenheimer and Co. , says that higher interest rates and stubborn inflation have impacted business development companies in terms of both defaults and leverage, but he notes that BDC executives have taken steps to minimize the impacts. Moreover, current conditions should have BDCs primed for better returns than they could deliver during low-ra...

Veteran money manager David Tepper, president of Tepper Capital Management, looks at four of the oldest closed-end funds -- Adams Diversified Equity, Central Securities, General American Investors and Tri-Continental -- that he has owned for decades, but which remain relevant and effective today, and which are trading at attractive discounts now.

John Cole Scott, president, Closed-End Fund Advisors -- chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance -- discusses portfolio construction and the many factors that go into a diversified safe and solid separately managed account with closed-end funds and business-development companies as the primary focus. He details a diversified tax-sensitive income fund , discussing the many factors that we...

In a bonus episode of The NAVigator, John Cole Scott, president of Closed-End Fund Advisors and the  chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance , discusses the historic level of deep discounts he is seeing in closed-end funds , and how that translates to buying opportunities now. Closed-end funds have seldom seen bigger discounts in the last quarter-century, Scott said, and says the curren...

Christian Munafo, chief investment officer at Liberty Street Advisors -- which runs the Private Shares Fund -- says that the perceived higher risks in challening environemnts like the one we are facing today often lead to attractive opportunities and oversized future gains, which makes current conditions attractive for private equity and venture capital investing. Munafo notes that private markets...

Scott Caraher, head of senior loans at Nuveen -- manager of the Nuveen Floating Rate Income fund -- says that the higher-than-expected increase in rates that has driven up borrowing costs has made credit selection 'more important today than it has ever been.' He notes that lower-rated companies can't sustain high levels of interest payments for long levels of time. As a result, Caraher says he is...

Chris Oberbeck , chairman and chief executive at Saratoga Investment Corp. , says that the balance of power in the lender-borrower relationship has shifted dramatically in the last 12 to 24 months, with banks now pulling back which is leaving private lenders with better terms and more power to insist on superior deals. Oberbeck notes that those conditions are putting BDCs generally -- but Saratoga...

Josh Duitz, head of global income at Abrdn -- manager of the Aberdeen Global Infrastructure Income Fund -- says that private infrastructure investments have attracted so much money that valuations have gotten off-kilter, creating an 'illiquidity premium' that 'makes no sense.' Duitz explains that publicly listed companies should have higher valuations  -- because investors value the liquidity and...

Eric Boughton, chief analyst at Matisse Capital and portfolio manager for the Matisse Discounted Closed-End Fund Strategy, says that while the stock market has roared this year, things haven't changed much with the closed-end fund space this year, meaning there are plenty of highly discounted issues, particularly in muni bonds and some other fixed-income spaces, as well as international funds. He...

Mark Asaro, director of investments at Noble Wealth Management , says investors should not think that a traditional open-end mutual fund is a good replacement for individual bonds. Without a maturity date, bond funds don't have the pull toward par of an individual bond. Closed-end funds, however, are immune to dilution from cash flows into the fund, thereby providing a stable yield that investors...

Kenneth Burdon, an attorney in the investment management group at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom says that  rules proposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission that would dramatically change liquidity requirements on traditional mutual funds could result in a boom for interval funds. While noting that the proposals still have a ways to go before approval, Burdon says that they would,...

Kimberly Flynn, managing director of alternative investments at XA Investments, says that demand for alternative investments as a means of adding diversification to a portfolio has spurred tremendous growth in interval funds, whose limited liquidity makes them an ideal vehicle for many types of less-liquid securities. Flynn notes that there are 190 interval- and tender-offer funds in existence tod...

John Cole Scott, president of Closed-End Fund Advisors , discusses what he is seeing in the market now by delving into four of the investments he is using the most and weighing heavily in client portfolios. He notes that the recent bank collapses actually made a few of his favorites more attractive -- because the market got angry at the financial sectors, driving prices down -- but he also explain...

Mickey Schleien, managing director for equity research at Ladenburg Thalmann and Co , says that business-development companies have seen the rising interest-rate environment lead to higher yields, which has helped to offset declines in net asset value that BDCs have suffered as a result of the Federal Reserve's tightening monetary policy. He says that middle market companies have seen revenues and...

Chris Marangi, co-chief investment officer for value at the Gabelli Funds , says 'the new normal' is one where inflation is higher than the Federal Reserve's target of 2 percent and growth is below trend, but it is creating an opportunity for active management to shine to find the opportunities that exist beyond the seven stocks that have been carrying the market to gains this year. He particularl...

Doug Baker, head of preferred securities at Nuveen , says that while it is relatively common now to find preferreds with yields above 7 percent, the real opportunity for investors at the moment comes from looking beyond the yield. He says that preferred prices right now are at 'meaningful discounts' that are uncommon in the preferred industry, creating attractive entry points, particularly on pref...

Rob Shaker, portfolio manager at Shaker Financial Services , says that economic conditions -- the debt-ceiling debate, troubled banks, higher interest rates and persistent inflation -- have created a situation where the market isn't climbing the proverbial wall of worry, but rather a 'Wall of Meh,' and says that there is opportunity in the unimpressive current conditions, noting that long-term inv...

Duncan Farley, portfolio manager at BlueBay Asset Management -- which runs the BlueBay Destra International Event-Driven Credit Fund -- discusses how his fund produced a 20-plus percent gain during one of the worst years ever for the bond market, and how the fund can avoid regression to the mean thanks to market conditions -- buoyed by the changing interest rate environment -- that if properly man...

Matt Freund, co-chief investment officer/head of fixed-income strategies at Calamos Investments , says he expects interest rates to settle in and remain stable for quite a while before trending down; he expects more volatility in longer-term bonds, which will make it harder for investors to get comfortable lengthening duration ahead of rate cuts that, under good circumstances, should arrive in 202...

Jim Baker, managing partner and co-head of energy infrastructure at Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors , says that the energy transition -- the push away from traditional fossil fuels towards renewable sources -- will take decades, creating a long-term megatrend in the energy business. With the last few years of global turmoil highlighting the critical nature of energy and the importance of keeping s...