Their Loss

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: July 10, 2026

This is one pricey market, and if you’re hesitant to put new money to work, I am sympathetic. After all, we’re here for the dividends. We want our principal to stay intact, so I understand it doesn’t make much sense buying high if we’re going to collect dividends but then watch the stock market proceed lower.

Valuations seem to have decoupled from fundamentals in many cases. As we speak, SpaceX, for example, claims an addressable market of $28.5 trillion—roughly the size of the entire U.S. economy. Which is all fair and well—but it also commands galactic premiums at 100 times sales.

I’m relatively young and healthy, but I’m not confident that I’ll be here for a hundred more years to collect those sales. As such, I’m a good old-fashioned dividend investor, and I love a deal alongside my dividend.

Let’s talk cheap stocks that pay today.

Closed-end funds (CEFs) are built differently than mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). CEFs have a fixed number of shares, which means their prices routinely disconnect from the value of what they own.

That inefficiency is our opportunity—we can buy stellar assets at 95 cents, 90 cents, even less on the dollar.

Take, for instance, these five CEFs that are offering up sky-high 6.0% to 10.4% yields that we can buy for 4% to 14% less than what they’re actually worth.

Taiwan Fund (TWN)
Distribution Rate: 6.6%

The Taiwan Fund (TWN) is a perfect example of how CEFs let us buy even white-hot assets for less than they’re worth.

Nomura Asset Management’s Sky Chen is tasked with building a portfolio of stocks listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange that represent a “broad spectrum” of the ROC economy. While it lists a number of industries, it specifically states that it “will invest more than 25% of its total assets in the semiconductor industry.”

A lot more, as it turns out. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) alone accounts for a third of the portfolio, which is stuffed with other semiconductor and technology stocks. In fact, the sector makes up 85% of assets. TWN isn’t broad, either, at fewer than 30 stocks right now.

Not That Anyone Is Complaining

Chen doesn’t use leverage or options—just a concentrated portfolio that pays out a substantial, if wildly variable, annual distribution. Right now, that sky-high distribution reflects the portfolio’s ludicrous gains, but that hasn’t always been the case.

Like Many International Single-Country CEFs, Distributions Are a Crapshoot

Despite TWN’s rocketship returns, the fund still trades at a 14% discount to its net asset value. That’s a little pricier than its five-year average 17% discount to NAV, but it’s still the only place anyone can get Taiwan stocks this cheap right now.

Calamos Global Dynamic Income Fund (CHW)
Distribution Rate: 8.2%

Calamos Global Dynamic Income Fund (CHW) is a global allocation fund, which means it can invest in both equity and debt. The “dynamic” means management will shift the portfolio as market conditions change, so more than most funds, what they own today might not be what they own a year from now.

CHW’s portfolio is a wide umbrella—management is happy to own common stock, preferred stock, investment-grade corporates, junk, U.S. government bonds, convertible debt, asset-backed securities, bank loans and more. Right now, Calamos’ fund is 60% invested in common stock from both the U.S. and abroad, with a heavy tilt toward growth. Another 20% of assets are in convertibles, and the rest is spread among other fixed-income issues.

This CEF also uses a high amount of leverage (nearly 30%). That can be a double-edged sword depending on the market environment, but it has largely worked out for shareholders. The fund’s longer-term performance is certainly more volatile than similar plain-vanilla versions of the strategy—take, for instance, the SPDR SSGA Global Allocation ETF (GAL), which is in the same global moderate allocation category—but also more lucrative.

Iron-Stomached Investors Have Done Well in CHW

That leverage also helps pad a thick monthly dividend north of 8%.

Calamos Global Dynamic Income might be drawing up another peak, which would give some would-be investors pause. CHW nonetheless trades at a 9% discount to NAV—cheaper than its 7% five-year average—but the fund has offered up even steeper deals in the past.

ClearBridge Energy Midstream Opportunity Fund (EMO)
Distribution Rate: 8.5%

ClearBridge Energy Midstream Opportunity Fund (EMO) is a targeted play on the energy sector.

Co-Managers Peter Vanderlee and Patrick McElroy have compiled a tight portfolio of 20 companies operating in the energy “midstream” (pipelines, storage, terminals and other energy infrastructure assets). That means it owns master limited partnerships (MLPs) such as Energy Transfer LP (ET) and MPLX LP (MPLX), as well as traditional corporations such as Targa Resources (TRGP) and Williams Cos. (WMB).

This Franklin Templeton CEF has historically underperformed its benchmark, the Alerian MLP Index, since it came to life in 2011. But we can largely blame long down-to-flat periods for energy infrastructure broadly since then—during bull markets, EMO has let it rip, thanks in some part to moderate-to-high leverage (currently 20%, though I’ve seen it above 30% in the past).

EMO Can Be a Fair-Weather Fund. But That Works When the Weather Is Fair.

That same leverage also helps EMO squeeze out a percentage point or two more in yield out of its monthly distribution than energy infrastructure ETFs.

ClearBridge Energy Midstream Opportunity’s five-year average discount is a deep 13%, which is roughly where it sits today—nominally cheap, but fairly priced relative to its history.

BlackRock Muniyield Quality (MQY)
Distribution Rate: 6.0%

Municipal bond funds are truly “hidden yields.”

The BlackRock Muniyield Quality (MQY) yields 6%, paid monthly—slightly below what junk ETFs are offering. But those junk ETFs can’t offer what MQY does: a federal tax exemption.

To get an idea of how big a deal that is: Someone in the 37% tax bracket paying the 3.8% net investment income tax (NIIT) would need to buy a taxable bond fund paying 10.1% to get the same amount of take-home income as they’d earn from MQY!

And we’re not buying junk to get that sky-high tax-equivalent yield. Munibond funds are often high-quality to begin with, and MQY’s management is explicitly tasked with owning higher-graded debt. More than 85% of the portfolio’s assets are investment-grade in nature, and three-quarters is rated A or above.

Extremely high leverage north of 40% means we’re getting a much bumpier ride than a traditional bond fund, so we need to pick our spots and not look at performance every day—but over the long term, MQY has offered up the same rising tide as funds like iShares National Muni Bond ETF (MUB)—just better.

But Beware: Buying at Peaks Can Hobble Us

MQY isn’t running particularly hot right now, and its 8% discount is about a percentage point cheaper than its five-year average.

abrdn World Healthcare Fund (THW)
Distribution Rate: 10.4%

Of all the CEFs I’m talking about today, abrdn World Healthcare Fund (THW) has the smallest discount right now, at just 4% to NAV—but it’s the best relative value.

Shares normally trade at a 4% premium.

We won’t find anything like this in ETF-land. We’ll start with its global nature—most ETFs that invest in the healthcare sector are heavy in U.S. companies, but only a handful are rich in international names. THW’s assets are split roughly 50/50 between American and foreign stocks, with most of the latter represented by western Europe.

We’re also going above and beyond traditional corporations. Yes, we have pharmaceuticals, biotech, life science and health insurers. But abrdn’s fund also holds healthcare real estate investment trusts (REITs), bonds, even venture capital. Toss in a decent amount of leverage (~20%) and a sky-high 10%-plus yield, and what do we get?

A Surprisingly Mixed Bag

THW has been much more productive of late, especially coming out of the 2023 downturn. But unlike the aforementioned EMO energy fund, abrdn’s CEF has largely existed in a healthcare bull market since inception in 2015—yet has failed to really stand out.

The culprit is management’s mix of debt and REITs—great for income, less great for growth.

Tired of Market Chaos? One of My Favorite 11% Dividend Is a ‘Cool’ Cure

Are you exhausted trying to keep up with the news lately? I don’t blame you—the news cycle is in overdrive, which means the market is a minefield of headline risk right now.

That’s why I always hold a few double-digit yielders. Massive income inflows can go a long way toward stabilizing our portfolios in turbulent markets while helping us come out ahead.

But only if we hold the right payers.

Longtime underperformers and funds with violent swings just won’t cut it.

When I take a swing on a double-digit yield, I look for highly skilled managers with a track record of running up the score on their competition.

Every summer, thousands of investors repeat the same error. Markets grow more volatile, headlines trumpet sudden swings, and numerous people rush into buying or selling at precisely the wrong moment.

Paul Denley, CEO at London-based Oakham Wealth Management, said: “Summer markets can be deceptive. With many professional investors away on holiday, it takes less buying or selling to move prices around. That means markets can look much more dramatic than they really are.”

The notion that markets quieten over summer isn’t novel. The traditional saying captures this succinctly: “Sell in May and go away, come back on St Leger Day.”

Rather, he argues wealthy investors grasp the distinction between market noise and genuine investment opportunities. He continued: “They don’t let scary headlines force them into making emotional decisions. They focus on the quality of the companies they own, not what the market happens to be doing on a Tuesday afternoon in August.”

According to Mr Denley, among the most significant errors regular investors commit is presuming every sharp market movement signals something crucial has shifted.

He explained: “In reality, summer price swings often happen because fewer people are trading. Prices can move more sharply, but that doesn’t necessarily tell you anything about how healthy those businesses really are.”

As the holiday period draws to a close and investors head back to their desks, markets frequently become influenced more by corporate earnings and economic data rather than quieter summer activity. Mr Denley maintains that’s precisely why seasoned investors seldom restructure their portfolios during the summer months.

He said: “Successful investing isn’t about reacting to every headline. It’s about sticking to a well-thought-out plan and remembering that short-term market swings are often just noise.

“The wealthy don’t try to outsmart the calendar. They know patience usually beats panic. If nothing has changed about the businesses you own, a volatile summer isn’t usually a reason to change your investment strategy.”

One option is to buy an IT and hold forever and use the dividends either to re-invest in the Trust or another Trust and then when you retire use those dividends to pay your bills.

You can research the SNOWBALL for

Rule of 7/2

Dividends have been 80% of stock market returns

Warren Buffett and the 60% yield from Coca Cola

The SNOWBALL current investment criteria is a yield of 7% or above.

If you look at CTY for 3 specific news driven chart events, there could be a way of improving the yield.

A share has three phases, up, sideways, down. As you want to earn the dividends for re-investment, you need to hold whilst the share is going up and sideways but not when it’s falling. Now shares go up and down all the time, otherwise there would be no markets, you need to sit thru the market noise but be ready to act on news driven events.

You need to be careful when the share is trading below the cloud but it’s not a reason to sell. If you wanted to hold CTY for it’s long term dividend history, Mr. Market gives you the chance.

The orange candle is an inside day and is ignored for trading, so you wait for two positive candles. You can only buy at the bottom, with luck but you could have bought the yield or the second white candle.

When the market falls out of bed, you cannot wait for the price to trade above the cloud as you forfeit too much profit.

The price still traded around 300p in November but you would have banked two dividends.

Common Stock

Sell: $10.83|Buy: $10.93|Change:  0.09 (0.83%)BuySell

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Open 

$10.88

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Previous close 

$10.81

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Trade high 

$10.9484

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Volume 

2,280,928

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Year high 

$13.81

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Year low 

$9.83

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Dividend yield 

16.1%

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Market capitalisation 

$950.51 mn

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Next ex-div date 

09/07/2026

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P/E ratio 

8.57

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ISIN 

US70931T1034

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Next payment date 

24/07/2026

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This share can be held in a Dealing accountStocks and shares ISALifetime ISA JISA SIPP

USD

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust 

Dividends

	Previous	Latest
Record date	09/04/2026	09/07/2026
Ex-dividend date	09/04/2026	09/07/2026
Payment date	24/04/2026	24/07/2026
Amount	$0.40	$0.40

Performance06/07/2026

1D | 1M | 3M | 1Y | 3Y ann | 5Y ann | 10Y ann

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	Total return (%)
PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust	+ 0.83

Company profile

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust is a specialty finance company that invests mainly in residential mortgage loans and mortgage-related assets. The company’s operations include activities such as the production and servicing of financial securities based on residential loans and the pooling and reselling of high-credit-quality mortgages. The company operates through three segments: correspondent production, credit-sensitive strategies, interest-rate-sensitive strategies. The Credit sensitive strategies segment generates income via investments in CRT arrangements, subordinate MBS, distressed loans, and real estate.

Sector 

Real Estate

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You want to invest your hard earned in your Snowball, as you know in the long run markets go up but not in a straight line.

You want to sleep soundly in your bed, you also know most stock market returns in the long run are returned dividends.

You are interested in CTY because having done your research you know they have a very long history of gently increasing their dividends and you also know that CTY have reserves to add to their income to maintain their dividend record.

Remember, if you are a long term holder, those reserves have been paid for by you.

That’s the TR chart, which includes earned dividends.

That’s the chart, where you simply do nothing and re-invest the dividends back into the share, until you want to use those dividends to pay your bills.

Using good ole hindsight, 5k invested would know be worth 80k.

The current yield is 3.7% so income of £2,960 a buying yield of around 60%

Some platforms allow you to re-invest, at zero charge.

Nearer to the end of a bull market than the start, now might not be the best time to start a new position. Money market accounts pay a similar yield, so you could accrue some cash and wait for a better entry/yield point.

One obstacle, you may set a target of say 4.5% and CTY gets close to the yield but never trades that low.

One way of trading would be to buy, after a fall, when the price trades back above the cloud, high risk in the current markets.

This “All-American” 11.6% Dividend Hasn’t Been This Cheap Since 2017

by Michael Foster, Investment Strategist

As America celebrates its 250th, there’s something happening inside its economy that’s not getting enough attention.

A quiet boom.

It’s one more thing worth celebrating this month – and we’re going to do that. We’re also going to get set for the next leg of America’s low-key growth run with a closed-end fund (CEF) yielding north 11.6%.

The chart below, which The Economist published two years ago, nicely sums up the wealth-building power of the US economy over the long haul.

The key piece of info here is on the left side of this chart. Here, we can see that over the last century, each generation of Americans has started its working career earning more than previous ones. And, yes, this data is inflation-adjusted.

No matter how you slice it, America is getting wealthier, generation by generation.

I know that this kind of optimism feels a bit, well, off these days, going by the negativity we read in the press. But the facts are clear. And we can bring this up to the present day by looking at Americans’ disposable income: It’s done nothing but march higher.

Here we see the amount of inflation-adjusted disposable income each worker has, on average. Right now, it’s around $11,072 per person per year, or double what it was 40 years ago.

That’s striking. And despite the gloom hanging over the job market these days, the average person’s employment prospects still look good, with the jobless rate at 4.2%.

Nonetheless, the disconnect between these bullish numbers and consumers’ dour mood is real. You can clearly see it below:

The blue line shows disposable income steadily rising, with things going temporarily haywire during the pandemic, when disposable income suddenly skyrocketed.

Disposable income has since retreated to the normal upward trendline, but no matter. Consumer sentiment (the green line) has slumped, and remains in the dumps years after the last lockdowns ended. Perhaps the memory of all that extra money during COVID is at play here.

In any case, one thing that certainly is true is that inflation is higher than it was in the 2010s – so much so that economists have accepted that we’re probably going to have 3% inflation on average instead of 2% for the long haul. But the fact remains: Americans are still earning more and have more to spend, and this trend has moved steadily along for a hundred years.

An 11.6% Dividend With a Buy American Kicker

What America has accomplished over the last 250 years is incredible, especially since we’ve now seen an entire century of growing wealth as a result.

Which is where the Liberty All-Star Equity Fund (USA) comes in – and not only for its patriotic ticker. In one go, the CEF gives us exposure to leading US firms like NVIDIA (NVDA), Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOGL) and Amazon (AMZN).

But it’s not all about tech: Capital One Financial (COF), Visa (V) and health insurer Humana (HUM) show up among its top-10 holdings, too. USA takes its gains on this portfolio and “converts” them into that 11.6% dividend. And as you’d expect in a rising market, that payout has been growing.

USA’s Big – and Rising – Payout

The fund fuels its dividend by aiming to return 10% of its net asset value (NAV, or the value of its underlying portfolio) as payouts every year. That’s why the line above tends to fluctuate over time.

That upward trend in the dividend is, as a result, tied to the fund’s performance: Over the last decade, USA’s market pricebased total return has more than tripled (in purple below), with its total-return NAV (in orange) not far behind.

USA Marches Higher (No Matter How You Measure It)

At the right side of the chart above, you’ll see that the fund’s total NAV return is starting to reel in its market price-based return. That’s resulted in a discount to NAV (the main valuation indicator among CEFs) of 12.9%.

That’s a level not seen since 2017. And it’s completely out of step with the strength of this fund’s performance over time – not to mention its rising payout:

USA’s Back-to-2017 Sale

The power of USA’s high dividend, over time, should not be underestimated, either. The chart below tells the tale of two hypothetical investors: one who bought $100K of USA a decade ago and reinvested their payouts (in orange) and one who used the fund’s dividends to pay their bills, relying solely on USA’s price gains for growth.

Both tales are happy ones:

USA Is a Long-Term Winner, No Matter What You Do With the Dividends

As you can see, an investor who bought USA a decade ago and used the fund’s dividend to pay for living expenses would have still seen their $100,000 initial investment rise to $116,230. Not bad! And our investor who reinvested their payouts would now have a holding worth $317,610.

It just goes to show that a CEF like USA is a smart way to ride along with America’s long-term growth – whether we need the income generated by that growth or not.

4 More “Star-Spangled” 10%+ Dividends as America Turns 250

This quiet boom isn’t just about the American economy as a whole. It’s fueled by several “mini-booms” happening in specific sectors.

Like pharma, where AI is slashing drug-development times, setting up billions more in sales for drugmakers.

Or on the factory floor, where AI-powered robots can make their own decisions, in real time, slashing costs and boosting product quality.

The best news for us is that CEFs give us a way to tap these “mini-booms” while grabbing big income streams at the same time.