Interesting concept, though I’ve always been a bit skeptical about passive income claims until I see real numbers. Have you personally been using this RECI system for a while, and if so, how long did it take to see consistent returns? I’m curious about the risk level compared to something like dividend stocks.
TR chart, where anyone who bought when the Trust started trading are below the water line.
The covid crash, where it was assumed that companies would stop paying the interest on their loans, even though the loans were secured against property.
As always.
The SNOWBALL has traded the trust with a profit of £843 and £829.
The SNOWBALL owns RECI for the regular dividend to re-invest back into the portfolio. Current position a loss of £95.00 including the earned dividend but not received.
Reliable dividend that isn’t keeping up with inflation, so buying the yield is important.
Unlikely to be a capital gain until interest rates and bond yields fall.
For the SNOWBALL it’s a hold and re-invest the dividends back into the portfolio but it’s unlikely to be at RECI’s current yield.
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After a strong equity rally during April and May, June was more mixed. Only half of the major global stock market indices that we track each week made gains.
The star performer was the Japanese Nikkei 225, which went up by 5.6%, adding to the 11.9% that it had made in May and the 15.3% in April. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the Hong Kong Hang Seng fell by 8.9%.
Closer to home, the FTSE 100 ended the month up 0.8%, while the more domestically focused FTSE 250 fell by 1.8%. Across the Atlantic, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 2.5%, while the S&P 500 fell by 1.1% and the Nasdaq dropped 2.8%.
However, the performance of the UK-domiciled funds was more encouraging, with around three-quarters making headway over the month. Most of the Investment Association (IA) sectors also made positive returns in June. Of the 33 that we regularly monitor, 28 posted one-month gains.
Leading the way was the new Healthcare & Biotechnology sector, up 8.2%.
Past performance is not a guide to future performance.
2 Big Dividends on Sale as Warsh Goes “Dirty Harry” on Inflation (Yields Up to 11.9%)
Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist Updated: July 7, 2026
The crowd is still way too worried about interest rates—and their fear is handing us a shot at two stout monthly dividends (yielding up to 11.9%) on the cheap.
We can thank new Fed chair Kevin Warsh for ginning up the panic here. Because he was appointed by President Trump, the suits expected Warsh to push for lower rates right off the hop. Instead, the new Fed chief has gone full Dirty Harry on inflation.
Investors are buying it. But they’re already on the wrong side of the story.
Oil has plunged to around $68 a barrel. And the job numbers for June, out last week, were soft, with the number of new gigs around half of what it was expected to be. That could be a sign of things to come as AI spreads across the economy, providing a sweeping level of automation to white-collar work. Very deflationary.
In the 1990s, the Internet acted as a similar “deflator” on prices. The move from snail mail to email and from fax machines to web browsers made businesses wildly more efficient, which kept a lid on consumer prices.
The bottom line here is that rates will fall. Which brings us back to Warsh.
Even though the president has given him a long leash for now, I expect it to shorten fast when rates and inflation start to ease. When push comes to shove, Warsh will choose self-preservation.
As the wind shifts toward lower rates, I expect the discounts on the two monthly dividend CEFs we’ll discuss next to speed toward par—and possibly beyond.
Monthly Dividend Pick No. 1: A Diversified Pick With a 7.8% Dividend
We’re going to start with a fund holding high-yield stocks and handing us a rich 7.8% dividend (yes, paid monthly).
That would be the BlackRock Enhanced Equity Dividend Trust (BDJ), which is nicely set up for pretty well any market. For starters, its portfolio is balanced among stock sectors. Tech is the biggest slice, but even so accounts for a reasonable 18% of assets, followed by financials (15%), industrials (14%) and healthcare (13%).
Then BDJ adds a dash of global exposure, with about 11% of assets outside the US, in stable countries like the UK, South Korea and Canada.
Let’s get to what we really want to know about here: the (monthly!) dividend, which is not only hefty but has risen a stout 32% in the last decade (not including special dividends—the spikes in the chart below):
The fund aims to hold at least 80% of its portfolio in dividend-paying stocks. Right now, its holdings include Amazon.com (AMZN), as well as companies like CVS Health(CVS) and Citigroup (C), both of which stand to gain as AI boosts their efficiency.
BDJ is also seeing gains from FedEx (FDX), as the company cuts costs and moves away from lower-margin work (like Amazon deliveries). BDJ also holds Western Digital (WDC), which has soared on booming demand for chips and storage.
The fund further bulks up its dividend by selling options on its holdings. That brings in extra income and further shores up the dividend. It’s a strategy that works particularly well in volatile markets.
Even so, investors have tossed BDJ aside. As I write this, the fund’s discount to net asset value (NAV, or the value of its underlying portfolio) sits at 6.7%—though it looks like it’s carving out a bottom here, suggesting its next move could be toward par.
BDJ Is Cheap—and Its Discount Has Momentum
That’s a great setup to move into this well-constructed fund. The bonus? Since it pays dividends monthly, a buyer today won’t have to wait long to collect their first payout.
Monthly Dividend Pick No. 2: An 11.9% Dividend for 94 Cents on the Dollar
Now let’s swing over to bonds, where another fund from BlackRock stands out: the BlackRock Multi-Sector Income Trust (BIT). (That’s par for the course, as BlackRock is one of the biggest players in the CEF space.)
A key thing to note with BIT is the long average maturity on its credit assets: around 13 years. That’s important because longer-duration bonds do better when rates decline, as they’re more attractive than new (and lower-yielding) debt.
Moreover, BIT’s effective duration is around four years. That’s enough to position it for gains on lower rates without taking on too much risk if rates rise.
Plus, any rate-rise risk is more than priced into the fund’s 6.1% discount to NAV. That’s a level we haven’t seen since 2022, and then only briefly. And back then, the rate setup was the opposite of today’s: Inflation soared to 9%, and rates shot higher in response.
BIT’s “Back to 2022” Sale
The fund’s drop in valuation looks overdone here. And if you look at the right side of that chart, it looks like that discount is carving out a bottom, similar to what’s happening with BDJ.
On the performance side, this fund has been around since 2013 and has more than doubled the return of the benchmark US high-yield bond ETF, the SPDR Bloomberg High Yield Bond ETF (JNK), since then.
BIT Laps High-Yield Bonds
Reinvested dividends drove that return, thanks to BIT’s monthly payout, which has not only held steady through the tumult of the last decade (including the aforementioned 2022 bond meltdown)—it’s grown.
That strong payout record is likely to continue. And in the longer run, a move toward lower rates would act like a vice on the discount, forcing it to close—and help propel the fund’s price higher as it does.
Hi would you mind stating which blog platform you’re using? I’m going to start my own blog soon but I’m having a difficult time deciding between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal. The reason I ask is because your design seems different then most blogs and I’m looking for something unique. P.S My apologies for getting off-topic but I had to ask!
BlackRock Latin American Investment Trust PLC ex-dividend date Invesco Asia Dragon Trust PLC ex-dividend date JPMorgan China Growth & Income PLC ex-dividend date JPMorgan Emerging Markets Growth & Income PLC ex-dividend date JPMorgan European Growth & Income PLC ex-dividend date Real Estate Investors PLC ex-dividend date Schroder UK Mid Cap Fund PLC ex-dividend date Sirius Real Estate Ltd ex-dividend date Social Housing REIT PLC ex-dividend date
Which investment trusts have delivered riches this year ?
Investment trusts are often a sound investment but picking one that stands out from the crowd can really boost your returns.
So if you’re trying to decide where to invest for the second half of the year it could pay to see which trusts and sectors have outperformed the rest over the last six months.
Story by Dan McEvoy
The top funds and stocks for DIY investors have reflected a slant towards technology so far this year. Investors who followed that trend were rewarded, as technology-focused investment trusts delivered greater returns than any other sector.
According to the Association of Investment Companies (AIC), an industry body representing the UK’s investment trusts, the average investment trust performed better than the UK stock market’s flagship large cap index, returning 9.4% during the first half of the year compared to the FTSE 100’s 5.7%.
Some investment trust sectors generated average returns well above this level.
The top-performing investment trust sectors of H1 2026
Tech was the top-performing investment trust sector, returning over 50% in the first six months of the year.
“The historic boom in AI spending continued to drive returns in the first half of 2026, most obviously in the technology sector,” said Annabel Brodie-Smith, communications director at the AIC.
The ten best performing investment trust sectors in H1 202
AIC sector
Share price total return in %
H1 2026
1 yr
3 yrs
5 yrs
10 yrs
Technology & Technology Innovation
50.5
88.6
211.6
184.7
1,026.3
Asia Pacific
32.8
58.3
79.5
47.3
257.9
Global Emerging Markets
31.4
62.2
109.4
65.3
232.9
Asia Pacific Equity Income
26.0
53.2
88.1
72.5
208.1
Global Smaller Companies
23.7
32.7
64.8
12.4
206.7
Japan
18.2
32.0
62.5
39.6
178.3
Growth Capital
17.3
49.9
115.1
-40.8
N/A
Global
15.5
29.7
84.3
28.6
307.3
Commodities & Natural Resources
13.1
62.3
71.3
92.1
97.2
Infrastructure
10.7
18.9
28.4
16.0
186.3
Source: theaic.co.uk / Morningstar. Share price total return in % to 30/06/26.
Tech and AI might be more heavily represented in the top-performing investment trust sectors than is initially apparent: the theme is also having a significant impact “in Asia and emerging markets where some of the world’s largest AI hardware and microchip manufacturers are based”, said Brodie-Smith.
It has also been a good six months for global small caps, with the sector returning 23.7% on average to make it the fifth-best-performing investment trust sector. The average Japan-focused investment trust, meanwhile, returned 18.2%.
Which investment trusts were the top performers in H1 2026?
While technology was the top-performing investment trust sector overall, the top-performing individual investment trust came from the commodities sector.
Baker Steel Resources (LON:BSRT) returned over 65% in the first six months of the year. The trust is a diversified commodities investment trust; it holds producers of precious metals like gold and silver, but as of 31 March its portfolio has the largest weighting towards tungsten producers – making up 23% of assets.
The ten best-performing investment trusts in H1 2026
Investment trust
AIC sector
Share price total return in %
H1 2026
1 yr
3 yrs
5 yrs
10 yrs
Average investment trust
9.4
21.1
48.2
28.9
171.5
Baker Steel Resources
Commodities & Natural Resources
65.2
104.0
187.6
35.5
433.3
Seraphim Space Investment Trust
Growth Capital
56.5
119.4
595.6
N/A
N/A
Polar Capital Technology
Technology & Technology Innovation
53.7
96.2
223.4
201.1
1,040.8
Pacific Horizon
Asia Pacific
50.0
92.2
119.5
40.2
538.6
JPMorgan Asia Growth & Income
Asia Pacific Equity Income
45.7
76.0
108.5
56.3
310.5
Manchester & London
Technology & Technology Innovation
45.6
47.8
185.5
127.2
540.6
Fidelity Emerging Markets
Global Emerging Markets
43.5
99.2
178.5
84.9
238.3
Templeton Emerging Markets Investment Trust
Global Emerging Markets
42.9
80.9
146.0
90.5
322.3
Allianz Technology Trust
Technology & Technology Innovation
42.7
77.4
187.0
155.4
1,112.9
Schiehallion Fund
Growth Capital
39.7
73.6
213.9
8.8
N/A
Source: theaic.co.uk / Morningstar. Share price total return in % to 30/06/26.
Technology is unsurprisingly a recurring sector in the rest of the 10 top-performing investment trusts list. Three of the trusts – Polar Capital (LON:PCT), Manchester & London (LON:MNL) and Allianz Technology (LON:ATT) – are all designated to the technology and innovation sector by the AIC, while Seraphim Space (LON:SSIT) and Schiehallion Fund (LON:MNTN) have significant overlap with technology as a theme.
Asian and emerging market trusts like Pacific Horizon (LON:PHI) also featured amid the AI boom. Pacific Horizon’s top two holdings as of 31 May were chipmakers Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor.
“The strong performance is extremely welcome, but this is only a snapshot. It is important to remember that investing is a long-term commitment and that any sector or trust should form part of a broader, diversified portfolio,” said Brodie-Smith.
I’ve bought for the SNOWBALL 798 shares in PMT, PennymMac Mortgage Investment Trust, ahead of their xd date this week. High risk as they are quoted in U$ dollars so there is a currency charge included in the trade. The costs may outrun the benefits, so the share may have to be sold sooner than later.
