Mitchel Penn, managing director of equity research at Oppenheimer & Co., says that business development companies have seen yields rising in line with higher interest rates, a trend he sees continuing while the Federal Reserve continues hiking rates. The higher rates have resulted in more credit risk with more borrowers struggling to make payments; as a result, unrealized losses at BDCs have increased, and while those setbacks remain within expected ranges this year, investors will want to watch the trend to make sure losses don't grow wildly if rates keep rising and/or remain high for several years.

John Cole Scott, chief investment officer at Closed-End Fund Advisors -- chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance -- says that today's rate uncertainty has created attractive entry points for some municipal-bond funds because they are trading at big discounts and, in many cases, have gone through a dividend cut, thereby reducing the potential for another cut moving forward. Scott doesn't minimize the pain the muni funds have experienced this year, but notes that investors who are brave enough to double-down should be rewarded as the rate cycle plays out, although he cautioned against looking at yield as the selling point rather than combining yield with discount and net asset values to determine the best opportunities.

Mark Milner, senior investment strategist at Parametric Portfolio Associates, says that a lot of asset classes of closed-end funds have now reached double-digit discount territory, "which historically has been a good opportunity to buy closed-end funds," noting that current discounts allow investors to add to their portfolios or rebalance into funds creating greater value for their money. Milner does worry that year-end tax-loss harvesting in 2022 will be higher than in years past as a result of the large market drawdown earlier this year -- but is hopeful that the compelling values will convince investors to reinvest the proceeds of those sales back into closed-end funds, which would help to minimize the potential impact all of that money movement.

Gretchen Lam, senior portfolio manager, Octagon Credit Investors -- sub-adviser on the XAI Octagon Floating Rate & Alternative Income Term Trust -- says that while economic conditions are challenging and that a recession will be bad for the credit markets, collateralized loan obligations and other loan products have held up relatively well during the current period of rising rates. They haven't been able to avoid the downdraft, she says, but they have outperformed other forms of credit, maintaining a historical pattern of superiority in tough conditions. Coupled with low default levels -- which she expects to rise a minimal amount despite higher interest rates -- it creates an opportunity for credit investors now.

Duncan Farley, portfolio manager at BlueBay Asset Management and manager of the BlueBay Destra International Event-Driven Credit Fund, says that the current economic and market conditions that are making headlines and rattling investors are actually creating something of a 'perfect storm' of opportunities that should make it easier to profit from alternative credit investments moving forward.

Robert Bush, senior vice president and director of closed-end products at Calamos Investments, says that convertible securities -- a hybrid product built to give investors the best of stock and bond performance -- have not been giving investors their cake and letting them eat it too this year, underperforming both stocks and bonds, but he says that positive returns to the end of the third quarter and the way convertible funds have held up relative to fixed-income funds suggests that convertibles should deliver better on their purpose moving forward. Bush also discusses two of the firm's funds, comparing a long-short strategy to a total-return fund and discussing how they have fared -- and what has happened to their discounts -- this year.

John Cole Scott, chief investment officer at Closed-End Fund Advisors -- the chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance -- discusses and compares floating-rate and senior loan funds with preferred-securities funds, noting that floating-rate funds are a tool for combating high and rising interest rates, while preferred equities are a good weapon for battling a recession. As a result, investors in today's complex market may want to "split the ticket," using both types of funds to bolster their portfolio; he looks at the characteristics of each asset class, and has fund suggestions in each category for investors to consider.

Mark Scalzo, chief investment officer at Validus Growth Investors -- portfolio manager for the newly listed Destra Multi-Alternative Fund -- discusses the outlook for alternative investing, the process his fund went through in changing its status and becoming one of the few new listings on the New York Stock Exchange this year, and how that conversion and some other factors have led to a discount that is much bigger than average or than most closed-end fund investors would expect.

Kyle Brown, president and chief investment officer at Trinity Capital, explains how the company's structure helps to support double-digit yields and makes them more secure than other high-yield investments, but also discusses the business development company's exceptionally high yield relative to the rising interest rate and high inflation rates of today. He also talks about how those conditions impact the high-growth, venture-backed, early-stage companies that Trinity finances.

Cheryl Pate, senior portfolio manager for the Angel Oak Financial Strategies Income Term Trust, says that community banks stand out as a part of the financial sector that is poised to benefit into 2023, as banks will likely see the bulk of continuing rate hikes fall directly to the bottom line. Even with that boost, however, she favors bank debt right now compared to holding bank stocks, noting that banks had an excess of deposits generated during the pandemic period and that is being flushed from the system and fee income is falling due to lower loan growth and higher costs, which have created headwinds to earnings. With capital levels at multi-year highs and high levels of liquidity and reserves, Pate sees opportunity in banking-sector debt now that coupons have been "rising nicely," plus she sees community banks as attractive merger candidates which should give a boost to their paper as transaction activity increases into next year.