Meet NAVigator Podcast host Chuck Jaffe
Jane King interviews financial journalist Chuck Jaffe, host of AICA’s NAVigator Podcast. Jaffe discusses the genesis and purpose of the podcast, saying its aim is to enlighten the public about closed-end funds and spotlight the investment industry professionals who work with them. He says podcast discussions are never scripted and seek to provide a useful mix of educational and timely fund performance information.
ASA Gold’s Merk on how precious metals will respond in a coming recession
Axel Merk, chief investment officer for the ASA Gold and Precious Metals fund, says that gold prices are most tightly correlated to "the confidence the market has in the central bank to manage inflation over time," so gold's rally over the last six weeks...
Let’s go Black Friday discount shopping with John Cole Scott
John Cole Scott, president of Closed-End Fund Advisors and the chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance, tackles the biggest shopping day of the year closed-end fund style, talking about where discounts stand in general for the industry...
Sit Invest’s Doty on muni-bond discounts and how they will be trimmed
Bryce Doty, senior portfolio manager at Sit Investment Associates, says that muni-bond closed-end funds using leverage -- where the cost of their borrowings are effectively wiping out returns given current conditions...
Abrdn’s Purington: Exxon, Chevron deals will trigger an infrastructure merger wave
Eric Purington, portfolio manager for the abrdn Global Infrastructure Income Fund, says that two mega-mergers outside of the infrastructure space -- deals involving upstream energy giants Exxon and Chevron -- have a lot of implications for...
XA’s Perry looks at the boom in non-listed funds
Steven Perry, vice president at XA Investments, discusses the surge in activity and creation for non-listed closed-end funds, covering why money managers, including a number of prominent sponsors who have never been in the space before,...
Angel Oak’s Pate: Bank debt should ‘outperform in the current environment’
Cheryl Pate, senior portfolio manager at Angel Oak Capital -- co-manager of the Angel Oak Financial Strategies Income Term Trust (FINS) -- says the banking industry's wild ride since the failure of Silicon Valley Bank in March has created "a market dislocation" in pricing for bank equities and debt,...
John Cole Scott reviews a rough quarter for closed-end funds
John Cole Scott, president of Closed-End Fund Advisors -- the chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance -- digs into his data to give a recap of the third quarter for the closed-end fund industry, noting that municipal bond funds and REIT funds particularly took it on the chin...
VettaFi’s Islam on the struggles/potential of ETFs buying closed-end funds
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.
Calamos’ Bush: Tough conditions for closed-end funds to stand out, excel
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.
Farley of BlueBay Destra International Event-Driven Fund
Duncan Farley, manager of the BlueBay Destra International Event-Driven Credit Fund -- which Morningstar places at the very top of its peer group over its five-year existence -- talks about how special situations are plentiful in the current marketplace...