To All, Closed End Funds. Part One: Domestics. Among the general funds, I like Adams Express. This conservatively managed fund (they actually like dividends, fancy that? <g>) is heavy into natural resources and basic industry and not a tech toilet. They do not expect to beat the indices with their safer plays, but they often do. Fairly low fees and a smallish 7% discount.
Tricontinental is one that has been something of a mystery to me. It used to be the Cadillac of CEFs (General American is the Rolls Royce), but lately it has been managed like a Yugo. Seligman is an average investment manager, so why haven't they done well with this fund? I don't really know why, but it has been around since the Earth was cooling and I am betting on a bounce next year. Adams is my conservative choice and TY is my businessman's risk selection. I also like the Royce Value and Small Cap Funds, in case value investing ever has a Prince kiss it on the lips so it can awake from its long sleep in the forest.
If you can borrow the shares for a short sale, always a big if with CEFs, Source Capital looks awfully fat with a 10% premium and blah performance. It is always fun to short at least one CEF, because your broker will have a cow when they pay out cap gains. <g>
Among specialized funds, I am happy and conceited enough to announce that my top pick in this category last year, H&Q Health Investors, was the best performning domestic fund for the past 52 weeks. It outpaced Fidelity Health Care among the open ends. I didn't check all of them, but that is the Big Kahuna, so kudos to the boys at HQH. The sibling, HQL, also did very well, though not quite up to my favorite. O.K., but that was then and this is now and I'm not buying them this year. I have a bit of residue left, but am mostly out.
My conservative pick this year is ASA. 45% platinum and diamonds, the rest gold. Holdings in the world's finest mines. A recession/depression/monetary crisis due with Republicans gaining the White House, so this stock could be a double this year. Petroleum and Resources has had a nice ride of outperformance and though I think the easy money has been made, I still like it.
For Businessman's Risk, I like some names that could gag a maggot. MVC, the meVC Draper Fisher Jurveston Fund (doesn't that monikor have that Magellan feeling of household name written all over it? <g>) is a $350 million venture capital firm getting its buttocks kicked in this market. But I suspect we have a future Safeguard Scientific on our hands here (or, SFE two years ago, not now <G>) and with a 44% discount, it is a candidate for open ending once the managers are strung up by shareholders. LCM Internet is the other one that may be a good spec here. Sure, the managers don't know shoe polish from manure, but they have a 15% discount and a shot at folding up their tents and paying out the cash to those of us who buy shares. And, who knows, the Xmas lies many bail them out.
More domestics to follow later. |
