The NAVigator

David Tepper of Tepper Capital Management in San Francisco explains why he uses closed-end funds almost exclusively in his client portfolios, noting that in today's market conditions there are plenty of opportunities to build a well-diversified portfolio at a discount, and adding that even long-term closed-end fund investors need to be prepared to take advantage of times when discounts narrow suddenly, creating short-term chances for bigger-than-expected gains.

Peter Vanderlee of ClearBridge Investments, co-manager of the LMP Capital and Income Fund, says that the stock market's recovery back to record-high levels hasn't made dividend stocks overpriced because much of the move has been in stocks that don't make distributions. Coupled with lower-for-longer interest rates, it makes dividend stocks the compelling buy for income-oriented investors in today's market.

Terry Gallagher, executive vice president at UMB Fund Services, sees an industry-wide trend towards the development of new interval and tender-offer funds. Gallagher -- whose firm helps investment companies launch new issues -- covers the reasons why the structures are growing in popularity, the tax implications that issuers consider when setting up a fund and more.

John Cole Scott, chief investment officer at Closed-End Fund Advisors and the founder/executive chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance, celebrates the end of the first year of The NAVigator podcast with a quick look back at a tumultuous 12 months for closed-end funds, but looks ahead at the industry with an eye toward how inflated by the pandemic economy are creating strong opportunities in the credit markets, in municipal bonds and beyond.

Daniel Wildermuth, chief executive officer, Wildermuth Wealth and portfolio manager of the Wildermuth Endowment Fund, says that investing like the big college endowment funds creates a long-term outlook that's heavy in private equity and other alternative asset classes, but that having that approach in an interval fund's structure forces investors to be patient and to ride out short-term market noise, which is necessary when loading up on private investments. He also provides his assessment of how private equities have responded in the topsy-turvy pandemic times of 2020.

Dave Lamb, head of closed-end funds for Nuveen, says that while municipal bonds have rebounded sharply, they haven't quite kept pace with investment-grade issues or recovered to pre-pandemic levels, creating an opportunity for investors. He notes that closed-end fund investors can find bargains and don't have to worry much about being disappointed when they can buy issues at wider discounts the way they can now.

Thomas DeCapo, a securities attorney with Skadden Arps who recently appeared at the AICA's Summer Summit, joined Chuck Jaffe to discuss control shares statues that critics have said will reduce activist challenges to closed-end funds. DeCapo says that the rules will protect investors, result in more closed-end funds bring brought to market and that it won't stop real activism -- where investors are looking for real change and improvement rather than boosting a price and grabbing a quick profit -- and he described the actions as consumer-friendly and democratic for small shareholders.

Eric Boughton, chief analyst at Matisse Capital -- a firm that manages portfolios of closed-end funds -- says that outsized discounts make most closed-end funds attractive potential investments now, noting in this interview from 'Money Life with Chuck Jaffe' that nearly every type of fund represents assets currently on sale. Still, Boughton notes that discounts by themselves are not a reason to buy, saying investors need to understand leverage and assets before taking a chance on higher-risk areas like master limited partnerships and more.

On today's edition of the NAVigator, Lawrence Holzenthaler, investment analyst at Symphony Nuveen, discusses high-yield investing in a low-rate environment, noting that equity markets are more optimistic than the broad corporate credit market and how average credit investors see risk very differently right now when compared to the typical equity investor. Holzenthaler adds that closed-end junk-bond and floating-rate funds now are a way to 'buy discounted assets at a discount,' which should make them attractive to bargain-conscious investors.

Long-time financial journalist John Waggoner explains why he has always gravitated towards closed-end funds even as investors and the news media often ignored them, and then explains how and why closed-end funds can provide advantages that he thinks most investors miss by focusing on closed-end funds, exchange-traded funds and active ETFs.