CEF's have been "HOT"

[xray]

 Many of us are reaching our current "Goals & Objectives" for the year in "this" month [1.37% to go in my case]. Hopefully this does not predict any shortfall in the market going forward. CEF's are "NOT" a continuous Buy & Hold [forever scenario] if one has a "Goal & Objective" in mind to reach this [and every] year [without the extended risk and being greedy]....
 Excel worksheets are the "key" for successful achievements to our goals and objectives as they always give us increased valuable information on any security that is currently in our portfolio's [and being tracked closely]....
 Retiree's usually have the best success as retired investors are "dividend" oriented [First for income] and thus CapGains are always anticipated as the second achievement [going forward]....

[chang]

At one time (around 5 years ago) I owned a few CEFs: (1) Municipal bond CEFs, mainly because NAVs had plunged (and CEF discounts widened) after Meredith Whitney's warning, which provided several years of lucrative returns; (2) a few other miscellaneous CEFs for short periods of time, principally as trades (I recall FAX was one).

Many CEFs back then had 10-20% discounts and Z-factors of -1 to -2. CEFs do not seem as attractive to me today. Moreover, as a B&H investor, I am not particularly warm to CEFs; I think they require frequent monitoring of discounts, UNIIs, etc. and are considered more as trading vehicles than "buy and forget" investments. Lastly, my portfolio is bigger than it used to be, and I try to adhere to minimum $ amounts for fund positions. Therefore I require that my stocks, ETFs or CEFs be extremely liquid. Many CEFs are not so, and can have significant buy-sell spreads during the trading day.

Accordingly, I don't think this retiree will venture into CEF land again. But I will always remain open to re-considering my viewpoint.

[steadyeddy]

I am completely staying away from CEFs...

I held a small portion of PCI prior to Feb/Mar 2020 bear market and continued to DCA down during the drop... what a mistake... it recovered some. I got rid of it all. Fortunately, it was a small loss. Lesson etched into my brain.

[uncleharley]

I like them because it is a way of using more leverage in a market that justifies that use. Since I expect the economy to get back to growth when the covid vaccine has been distributed, my thought is that this is a very good time to be setting up leveraged positions. The fact that interest rates will never be significantly lower only makes the situation look sweeter. As posted previously infrastructure funds are attractive to me on a risk/reward basis.

[xray]

For Chang:
Your: "Many CEFs back then had 10-20% discounts and Z-factors of -1 to -2. CEFs do not seem as attractive to me today. Moreover, as a B&H investor, I am not particularly warm to CEFs; I think they require frequent monitoring of discounts, UNIIs, etc. and are considered more as trading vehicles than "buy and forget" investments. Lastly, my portfolio is bigger than it used to be, and I try to adhere to minimum $ amounts for fund positions. Therefore I require that my stocks, ETFs or CEFs be extremely liquid. Many CEFs are not so, and can have significant buy-sell spreads during the trading day."

CEF's are not what you have described above [IMHO]. At the beginning of investing into CEF's, a investor must analyze the investment, and if passing, put a toe into the water [0-2% of portfolio]. Some of us look at discounts but we look more for a undervalued CEF with a >10% dividend [CapGain secondary]. Some of us retiree's are using a Goals & Objective" of 10% div + 5% CapGain = 15%/Yr. We never buy and forget and you are correct in that we have monitor our investments [at least once a week]. Since we don't trade securities, we don't worry about the buy-sell spreads....

The problem with CEF's , if there is one, is that the under evaluation is usually gone within 10days of inception. I, and some others, don't analyze CEF's [and other securities] using discounts or z-factors but math "numb3rs". The markets are a numb3rs game and we have to realize that we must use the numb3rs to our advantage when we can. We may not have the computers or the educational background like the p[rofessionals do but we do understand "numb3rs"....

One of my examples, collecting the div [+$2,065.00 CapGain game] was last month's sale of RVT [not owned currently because of the current low div and runaway NAV]. Our portfolio's should never only consist of CEF's but have a mixture of securities that are working well currently in our individual analysis [like HESM previously discussed and currently undervalued]....

Looking back at ZF [before it merged into ZTR (a loser by analysis IMHO)], we made $3400.00 in CAPGain along with collecting >10% dividend continually....

There is "GOLD" in CEF's but we have to pan for it.....

[xray]

For Steadyeddy:

Sorry for your loss but we all will have them from time to time. With that said....

Market corrections "should" always drop MktPrc high brings us opportunity. Having some cash available is always the key to success....

As I remember PCI and DCA, they were favorite buy conversations on message boards. I never owned any of them [by analysis] but always heard favorable comments continually being made. I, like others, like message boards for the securities that are being brought to us for our individual analysis [we all have different methodologies for analyzing]. Sometimes we all smile at what is being said vs our own individual analysis [which can be quite different]....

[xray]

For uncleharley:

Infrastructure is currently a hot issue for a lot of us looking for that great security to own [in that sector]. I have three on my current "watch list". The problem with owning any of them currently is that they will be dead money until President elect Biden gets in and makes some changes....

[acksurf]

When I get a bit closer to retirement I can see using CEFs more but not at the moment. I still have a small amount of PCI/PTY. For me they provide a slush fund of monthly "fun" activities such as golf. It's been building up as I am not doing much in the way of fun activities during Covid. Yeah, they're volatile but the distributions keep coming. If I had a massive portfolio, I probably wouldn't bother but I can see the allure of squeezing out some income through leverage.

[fritzo489]

acksurf,  take the plunge & get the clubs out ! Played last two years , no problems other that hitting the ball !!

                                                                       FORE, fritzo489