Thursday 22 October

Aberdeen Asian Income Fund Ltd ex-dividend date
Bankers Investment TrustPLC ex-dividend date
Foresight Solar Fund Ltd ex-dividend date
TwentyFour Income Fund Ltd ex-dividend date

HENDERSON FAR EAST INCOME LIMITED

4^th interim dividend for the year ending 31 August 2026

The directors have declared the fourth interim dividend of 6.30p per ordinary share in respect of the year ending 31 August 2026. The dividend will be paid on 27 November 2026 to shareholders on the register on 30 October 2026 (the record date). The shares will be quoted ex-dividend on 29 October 2026. 

This brings the total dividend in respect of the year ended 31 August 2026 to 25.10p per ordinary share.

Reinvesting dividends is one of the most important principles in investing, which helps to compound investment returns. Compounding is a type of ‘multiplying effect’ created by using dividend income to purchase new shares, which in turn grows future dividend income, creating a powerful feedback loop.

AJ Bell

Sequoia Economic Infrastructure Income Fund Limited  

Dividend Declaration

Interim Dividend for the Period Ended 30 September 2026

The Directors of the Company have declared that an interim dividend of 1.71875p per share will be payable to holders of Ordinary Shares as follows in respect of the three-month period ended 30 September 2026:

Ex-Dividend Date:	29 October 2026
Record Date:	30 October 2026
Payment Date:	27 November 2026
Dividend per Ordinary Share:	1.71875 pence per share

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: October 14, 2026

Yeah, we’re here for the dividends. But isn’t it nice when we buy a stock and it goes up, like, right away?

And it happens for us. We are contrarians! We buy payers when they are out of favor because that maximizes our yield (more dividends per dollar!) and minimizes our downside (everyone has already sold!).

Sometimes this works and we buy, say, a 6% dividend stock that quickly gains 10%. The hated setup gave us a quick paper buck. Cool—but now what do we do?

Well, we need to understand that a dividend acts like an anchor in both directions. This stock attracted income investors because it used to pay, say, 5%, but its price dropped, that yield became 6%, and people started buying because, “hey, Great Stock pays us more!”

But then, a 10% rise can move its yield closer to that previous 5% mark. So, our “next move” depends upon our timeframe and return goals. If we are here truly just for the divvie, then we hold. We locked in a 6% yield when we bought, which means this price movement is just noise. (True, potentially loud noise, but clamor to be ignored nonetheless.)

That said, we have to be OK with our gains retracing. And maybe we’re not. Perhaps we don’t mind having a shorter timeframe to lock in that 10%. Or even 17%, in an example I’ll show you now. This was a stock I recommended back in March. Since then, in aggregate, it’s gone absolutely nowhere. But we made 20% off of it anyway!

The landlord I’m talking about was Broadstone Net Lease (BNL), which I recommended to my Dividend Swing Trader readers earlier this year.

Most investors, even income-focused ones, don’t know the name because BNL rarely makes financial headlines. It quietly operates in the background with hundreds of single-tenant properties. These are mostly industrial buildings and a little bit of retail. BNL leases them out on long-term contracts and in net lease format, which means the tenants cover the property taxes, insurance and upkeep.

What does BNL do? It collects the rent and pays out most of it to shareholders in the form of dividends. Not a bad business.

We bought it low because BNL had been undervalued for some time. The company went public in late 2020, just in time for the Federal Reserve’s 2022 rate hikes. Not great for landlords like BNL who borrow money to grow, and therefore compete with the bond market for income investors. When rates jumped in 2022, investors dumped the whole REIT group, good landlords and bad. BNL slid from $26 to $14. By March of this year, it had clawed back to around $19, which I still considered cheap.

We bought, because BNL’s operating numbers told a steadier story. Occupancy was above 99%, about as good as it gets (duh!). AFFO, an earnings measure that accounts for non-cash items, grew 4% in 2025. Management had just raised its quarterly dividend again to 29.25 cents. Plus, the current leases had plenty of room to run, an average of 9.6 years, and they included built-in rent increases of about 2.1% per year.

BNL is growing cash flow by building new properties for current and future tenants, such as Amazon, Sprouts Farmers Market and Academy Sports. These companies have all signed long-term leases with BNL before construction.

We bought a little above $19 for a yield of 6%, and then the shares began to reward us. Over the next four months, BNL climbed to $22.79 per share, and along the way it paid two quarterly dividends totaling 58.5 cents per share, rewarding us with about 3% on our purchase price.

I told DST readers that Wall Street had caught on, and we sold for a 20.7% total return in about four months. Here’s what that looked like:

(Note: The chart above is price only. Our trade generated a $3.43 price gain plus $0.585 in dividends, a 20.7% total return.)

You see that most of our return came from price growth and not the dividend. And that is my point!

Last week, BNL traded at $18.28, below where we bought it in March. If you bought it then and held on, you’re down about 1%, even after collecting three dividends. At DST we banked 20.7%.

Why? Because the stock rallied to the upper end of its likely trading range. My DST system flashed a “take profits!” signal, so that’s what we did. There was no need to grit our teeth and endure a pullback. We took the money and ran!

In Dividend Swing Trader, we look for shorter term total-return opportunities in the same types of dividend-paying stocks and funds that you and I know and love. In these situations, we’re looking to collect our payouts and pursue price gains in the months ahead. That’s why I begged my editors to launch DST.

BNL shows what we’re looking for: a dividend worth collecting and enough price upside to make a shorter holding period worthwhile.

Now (as Tax-Loss Selling Starts Early)

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: October 13, 2026

This year, Christmas (for dividend investors!) is set to arrive two months early.

Our gift?

A chance to grab our favorite high yielders—closed-end funds (CEFs) paying 10% and more—on an early “year-end” sale.

How cheap are we talking here? How about 90 cents on the dollar? In some cases less.

We’ve got an early start to the year-end tax-loss selling season to thank for this opportunity.

Forget Year-End: The Best Dividend Deals Are Right Now

Our play starts with the fact that CEFs are a small market, with only around 365 out there. That means they’re mainly held by individual investors, since most CEFs aren’t big enough to move the needle for the big guys.

And when I say these funds are mainly held by everyday folks, I mean it. Individuals make up around 90% of CEF owners, according to one source.

You and I both know the mainstream crowd is highly likely to overreact to the headlines. That’s our “in,” because I expect these folks to get a little uncomfortable in the weeks ahead. As they do, they’ll sell—and we’ll be there to scoop up the bargains!

Here’s what I see driving that selling pressure:

• Midterms are coming, cranking up the anxiety level with each passing day.
• October is historically the most volatile month for stocks.
• Soaring bond yields are scaring investors into selling anything that looks like a bond (hint!).

This is already happening: According to the Q3 CEF review from First Trust, the average CEF discount to net asset value (NAV, or the value of its underlying portfolio) widened to 8.4% at the end of Q3 from 6% at the end of June.

Taxable-bond CEFs (hint! hint!) saw their discounts widen further, from 6.6% to 9.98%.

That’s where those early tax-loss sales come in, because despite all the worry these days, the go-to stock ETF, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), has gained 15% this year.

That’s going to prompt some nervous folks to take money off the table. As they do, they’ll offset those gains by booking losses. Bond CEFs, which have taken a beating, are prime candidates to be tossed over the side.

The result? Those already wide 9.98% average discounts could get even bigger, pushing these funds’ yields higher still.

Here’s the twist: When these folks clear the IRS’s “wash-sale rule” (which disallows the loss if you buy the same fund within 30 days before or after you sell it), they’ll likely re-buy those same high-yielding bond CEFs.

It’ll pay to be in before that happens. Then you could either sell later this year or early next, when a nice gain may be on the table—or simply hang on for the income.

Here are two CEFs to target, each kicking out dividends near 11%.

(Early) Tax-Loss Bargain #1: A 10.8%-Payer With a 10% “Red Tag Deal”

The BlackRock Credit Allocation Income Trust (BTZ) delivers a nice blend of stability and value, with 45% of the portfolio in investment-grade bonds. The rest is split among high-yield corporates, foreign debt, agency mortgages and bank loans.

The fund’s “goldilocks” effective duration (4.87 years) is another plus. It positions BTZ to gain if rates fall, while limiting losses if rates go higher than expected.

Which brings us to leverage—a tool many CEFs use. Here, management has taken a pragmatic approach, borrowing against 27% of the portfolio. That, like BTZ’s duration, is modest enough to boost income without layering on too much risk if rates keep rising.

The yield? 10.8%, and that payout has held up well over the last decade, with a small cut in 2017 more than offset by a hike in 2019. It’s been “no drama” since.

Source: Income Calendar

The discount plays a role in the payout: If you divide the yearly dividend by the fund’s NAV, not its 10%-discounted market price, you get 9.7%. That’s what management needs to earn to cover the dividend, and while NAV is down slightly this year as rates have climbed, its total NAV return was 10.1% in 2025.

But this year’s NAV weakness looks more than priced in: Right now, BTZ’s 10% markdown is much wider than its five-year average of 6.6% and double the 5% at which the fund traded at the start of the year.

That makes this one a smart play on “early” tax-loss selling. If the discount narrows later this year or early next, we’ll have a nice return to take off the table. And if rates fall, NAV returns would likely rise. That would bolster dividend coverage—and could shift BTZ from a short-term discount play to something more.

 (Early) Tax-Loss Bargain #2: A 10.9% Payer With a “Blown Out” Discount

The PGIM High Yield Bond Fund (ISD) provides the clearest evidence yet that our tax-loss selling party is kicking off early. This 10.9%-payer (complete with a monthly dividend) trades at an 11.5% discount.

Compare that to the average over the last year (just 2.2%!).

One chart clearly shows us that this deal is all about investors panic-selling ISD in their rush away from bonds:

ISD’s Portfolio Is Fine. Its Market Price Has Tanked

Above we see that the fund’s total return NAV (or its portfolio performance) has been flat, while its return on the public markets (in orange) has plunged. Investors are dumping a portfolio that’s doing just fine!

The result is an 11.5% discount that’s done nothing but grow wider over the last few months, again suggesting the crowd is looking to book its losses here.

ISD’s Discount Widens Heading Into Late 2026

The fund’s portfolio also complements BTZ, with 90% rated BB or below. That focus on non-investment-grade paper is great for us, because it’s where the biggest yields are.

We’ve got history on our side, too. Since its launch in 2012, ISD has posted a 102% return on its market price, even with this pullback. Compare that to around 84% for the State Street SPDR Bloomberg High-Yield Bond ETF (JNK), a proxy for US high-yield bonds.

And on a NAV basis (a better measure of management’s skill), it’s done better. See the purple line below:

ISD’s Portfolio Crushes Its Benchmark

ISD also uses zero leverage. Plus, its effective duration is 3.85 years, again positioning it to benefit from falling rates but not suffer too much if rates head higher.

My take? Tax losses or no, investors are moving off this well-run fund at exactly the wrong time. Taking the other side of that argument—and that sweet 10.9% dividend—is the better play.

My #1 “Christmas in October” Buy: 12% Dividends. 94 Cents on the Dollar

And there are even bigger dividends than these two on sale now.

Like my favorite bond CEF. Check out its resume:

• It yields 12%, paid monthly.
• It usually trades at a premium to NAV. Today you can buy it for 94 cents on the dollar.
• It’s run by a legendary CEF firm—a company I call “the Amazon of CEFs.”
• Its manager is a former Morningstar Fixed Income Manager of the Year.

Yet investors are blindly tossing this smartly run income play in their rush away from bonds. That’s our cue to buy, before the tax-loss selling crowd finishes selling and starts buying back in.

Current income to date £10,896

Current fcast for the calendar year 2026 £13,244, although a couple of dividends may be received in January 2027.

Cash for re-investment £831.00

The SNOWBALL has a comparator share VWRP.

Using the 4% rule that would currently provide income of £6,890.00

The 2027 target for the SNOWBALL is the 2031 figure of £12,064, which would mean the SNOWBALL would be well ahead of the plan.

9.9% Yield, 13% Off. This 100-Year-Old Fund Is Too Cheap by Michael Foster, Investment Strategist Let’s break down this cloud of pessimism hanging over the economy. As far as I can tell, it’s mainly coming from two sources:The bond market.The labor market.Concerns around both are overblown, and that’s been a plus for us at my CEF Insider service. It’s pushed out the discounts to net asset value (NAV) on these funds, setting up some nice buying opportunities over the last few months. It’s increased the dividend yields on some of these funds, too. In some cases near double digits. General American Investors (GAM), one of the more popular equity CEFs, tells the tale here. As I write this the fund’s market price trades at a 13.1% discount to its portfolio value (or its NAV, in other words). That’s cheaper than this 9.9%-yielder was just one year ago. That doesn’t make any sense, both in terms of the composition of its portfolio (which we’ll talk more about in a moment) and the state of the US economy as a whole. Which brings us back to our two “anchors” on investor sentiment. Let’s start with bonds. Even though yields have spiked, defaults are low. According to recent numbers from Fitch, they’re at about 2.8% on a trailing-12-month basis, within the rating agency’s forecast of 2.5% to 3%. But the media, negative-biased as it is, focuses on weaker corporate borrowers, which naturally raises investor fears. In short: While bond yields are up, credit stress isn’t. And corporate America’s results? They’re more than fine. As we can see in the above chart from FactSet, S&P 500 revenue growth has surged over the last year. Moreover, jobless claims are falling, suggesting layoffs are not spiking. And so far at least, AI is not weighing on jobs. This chart comes from a recent academic study by economists at UCLA, and it shows that unemployment among recent college graduates is really just moving in its usual up-and-down range, despite the advent of AI back in 2022. Another study, from Berkeley and LSE economists, shows that the use of AI in software engineering has not hit jobs in that sector. Moreover, it’s boosted programmers’ productivity. In reality, all of this suggests that AI is more like spreadsheets, word processors, the smartphone and, going way back, the printing press: yet another technology that’s making people more productive. An “Old” 9.9%-Paying Fund for a “New” World This new world of both strong economic gains and economic pessimism is one where an investor can position themselves for quiet, solid gains. One channel for doing so is GAM, a nearly 100-year-old fund that has weathered some of history’s biggest crises. The fund survived the pandemic, the 2008/2009 financial crisis, the dot-com bubble, and even older disasters, like the Great Depression. GAM’s IPO was in 1927, so it’ll hit the century mark next year. And my use of the word “survived” sells it short: GAM has thrived, with a 16.2% annualized total return, based on its market price, over the last 10 years. And yet, we have a 13.1% discount on the table here, which doesn’t make sense given the diversification of GAM’s portfolio, including high-value, high-performing companies like GE Vernova (GEV), Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), TJX Companies (TJX) and Republic Services (RSG). GAM also holds a lot of major tech firms, such as Apple (AAPL), Alphabet (GOOG), semiconductor maker ASML Holding NV (ASML) and Amazon.com (AMZN). That discount makes even less sense when we note that GAM yields 9.9%, based on its December payout. The fund also has a policy of paying out substantially all of its yearly net investment income and realized capital gains as dividends, mainly as a year-end distribution. That payout is made in the form of shares, though you can request cash. GAM’s payout will vary depending on its NAV returns, but at 15.3% annualized over the last 10 years, a payout in the 9.9% range has been well supported. The bottom line? GAM is a strong fund to consider for the market’s current moment, especially with the fund’s wide discount and strong history.