>>Baker-Fentress is brain dead as a money manager. Ditto for Source. At least Source has had some lucky picks in the past. But Baker hasn't been worth squat for decades.<<
That's not completely true. Baker Fentress had a huge holding in that Florida Bank (Barnett) that did awfully well, and some other extraordinary windfalls. Source for several years did better than any of the other large funds and also paid out generously both in dividends and capital gains (which don't show in stock price, but could be reinvested, of course). I admit that ever since valuations on the market as a whole got out of hand, I have not followed them as closely as I used to, so what you say is probably true for the last year or so.
Yes, you are right--something went awfully wrong with BKF over the last year or so. It never was very well diversified, so sometimes it has done very well. But Source is better, though not very impressive in later 1998.
A good many years ago, just to get their annual reports, I bought $25 of each of about ten CEFs through the Merrill Lynch "sharebuilder" program. Sort of like buying a magazine subscritpion, except that in some cases my $25 is now worth nearly $200. Source was the second highest, after Tricontinental. All distributions in every fund have been reinvested. What remains of the $25 put into Madison is worth about $6. Adams Express comes in third, I think. My brother has held Adams Express for years and years and built up a nice nest egg in it, reinvesting everything. |
