The NAVigator

Michael Lowenberg of White Mountain Capital — Portfolio Manager for the Modern Capital Tactical Income fund (ticker MCTOX) discusses the factors he considers when picking closed-end funds for the portfolio. Lowenberg — whose fund buys both stocks and closed-end funds — likes the funds for their downside protection, and explains that he values the assets for the portfolio more than he values any discount, noting that he will actually buy funds trading at a premium if conditions are right. He particularly likes high-yield funds right now, dislikes tech-heavy issues and is a bit heavy in cash with discounts having narrowed in recent months.

Kevin Mahn, President and Chief Investment Officer at Hennion & Walsh Asset Management — which runs the Smart Trust Unit Investment Trusts — says that he expects the Federal Reserve to cut rates over the next two years, which will drive investors to turn for income alternatives "since they can't find the 5 percent in the short-term CDs any more." That will drive investors toward business development companies and leveraged municipal closed-end funds, the latter benefitting from a reduced cost of leverage in a declining rate environment, as rates drive down. Mahn talks about using unit investment trusts — and specifically covers his firms UITs that invest in BDCs and closed-end funds — in current conditions, and talks about how the UIT structure can be a benefit for investors now.

The day after Thanksgiving is all about shopping at the biggest possible discounts, and John Cole Scott of Closed-End Fund Advisors puts a closed-end fund spin on it for the third straight year, culling through funds the way bargain shoppers look for the best deals. Scott — Chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance — identifies three different closed-end funds and one business development company that, based on his firm's data, are particularly good bargains entering the holiday and tax-loss selling seasons.

The NAVigator this week offers a taste of the action from the Active Investment Company Alliance's 2024 Fall Roundtable, which was held on November 13 in New York City. Individual investor Jim Cohen discusses how consumers in closed-end funds are caught between activist "whales" and fund sponsors, wanting to hold funds to account to narrow discounts and improve management, but sometimes coming away with lesser results. Axel Merk, President and Chief Investment Officer at Merk Investments — manager of ASA Gold and Precious Metals Limited — discusses why gold has worked better as a geopolitical hedge but has been less successful as an inflation hedge. He adds that precious metals perform better in higher-rate environments, and he doesn't think the current round of rate cuts will go so far as to pose a problem for gold in the medium term.

Josh Duitz, Portfolio Manager for the Aberdeen Global Infrastructure Fund, took a break from the program at the Active Investment Company's Fall Roundtable in New York this week to discuss the state of infrastructure investing now that the presidential election has been decided and the policies of the second Trump Administration are becoming more clear. Duitz says that deregulation and lower corporate taxes will help certain freight, for example, balancing out initial concerns about how tariffs might impact demand. He also notes digs into renewable energy — which critics have said they expect the Trump Administration to hurt — noting that he expects demand to keep it rolling, with some of that demand also coming from the nation's increasing reliance on artificial intelligence.

Jared Hagen, Vice President at XA Investments, discusses this year's unprecedented growth in interval and tender-offer funds and how the number of funds in registration guarantees the trend will continue through 2025. Hagen talks about why the investment community has taken a shine to interval funds and covers how the expansion into the space has included some unique partnerships, with firms like KKR and Capital Group pairing up to bring new products to market.

John Cole Scott, President of Closed-End Fund Advisors and Chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance, digs into his firm's data to break down a great three-month stretch for closed-end funds and business development companies. He says it was a period in which discounts narrowed dramatically and changed the opportunity set without it becoming overvalued or unattractive.

Jonathan Browne, Senior Investment Analyst at RiverNorth Capital Management — and Portfolio Manager on five of the firm's municipal bond closed-end fund-of-funds — says that the headwinds that made for big struggles in the muni bond space have shifted to become tailwinds, creating opportunity despite the strong recent rebound among muni bond funds. Browne says that the rising-rate cycle had led to discounts reaching the 12 to 15 percent range — a level previously only reached during financial crises — making munis about as cheap as they had ever been. Now, even after a run of more than 30 percent, muni closed-end funds are at the 70th percentile of cheapness, with "quite a bit of room to run."

Dana Staggs, President of Arrowmark Financial Corp., talks about how regulatory capital relief securities — bank-generated floating-rate notes that are currently producing yields of up to 15 percent — can function as an alternative investment. He notes that due to their emergence during the financial crisis of 2008, regulatory capital relief securities can also function efficiently in low-rate environments. Staggs says he believes the economy has "a lot of room to absorb continued declines in interest rates," and that banks are relatively healthy right now. However, he notes that concerns over potential troubles in commercial real estate can't be ignored.