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PODCAST

The NAVigator

Active Investment Company Alliance

The NAVigator, from the Active Investment Company Alliance (AICA), talks all-weather investing and "excellence beyond indexing" through the use of closed-end funds (CEFs) & business-development companies (BDCs). AICA – a new organization that includes a diverse constituency that runs from investors through fund sponsors – aims to help investors & advisors plot a new and different course to financial success, via the tactical use of securities that mix active management within listed & non-listed

business investing

All Episodes

11:54

XA's Perry says leverage in rising-rate world is a...

The NAVigator ·

2023/02/24

Steven Perry, vice president at XA Investments -- where he oversees product management on the XAI Octagon Floating Rate and Alternative Income Trust, -- discusses the benefits and risks associated with leverage in closed-end funds during a rising-rate environment, noting that for the closed-end fund market at the end of 2022, the levered market yield on net asset value was about 7.8 percent, compared to 6.4 percent on unlevered yield. Perry says it is important to watch how managers respond to what

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11:29

GraniteShares' Rhind: Inflation's peak improves...

The NAVigator ·

2023/02/17

Will Rhind, chief executive officer at GraniteShares -- which runs the GraniteShares US High Income ETF -- says that it appears to him that inflation has peaked and that interest rates are more stable, which has created a more favorable outlook for business-development companies and closed-end funds. Rhind notes that with economic conditions improving, the prospects for the businesses that are funded by BDCs has become more stable; he also cited the dollar's peak against foreign currencies as

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10:30

Wallach Beth's trading director on CEF liquidity and...

The NAVigator ·

2023/02/10

Michael Beth, director of trading at WallachBeth Capital, says that for all of the growth in the closed-end fund space, the amount of trading done each day is relatively small compared to other investment vehicles, which creates challenges for investors to get efficient execution on trades. Beth notes that conditions can make it so that an investor trying to buy a fund at a 10 percent discount could see as much as one-tenth of that benefit wiped out if 'the implicit cost of execution' meets with

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12:37

CEF Advisors' Scott on how the '23 hot start changes...

The NAVigator ·

2023/02/03

John Cole Scott, president of Closed-End Fund Advisors and the chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance, returns to The NAVigator to discuss how closed-end funds responded to the year-end rally and then the sharply bullish January, examining which sectors and fund types came out ahead and where the opportunities appear to lie now. He's got details -- and fund picks -- across various sectors and asset classes on where to look for continued growth and income as the rally continues to take

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10:49

Abrdn's Purington: Middle-market infrastructure has...

The NAVigator ·

2023/01/27

Eric Purington, portfolio manager and infrastructure specialist at abrdn, says that middle-market private investments are a path to profitability and outperformance now due to a supply-demand imbalance that has large-cap operators -- working with an 'ocean of capital' looking to do more acquisitions and pay a premium for them. Purington, who is responsible for private-market investments for the abrdn Global Infrastructure Income Fund, says that while infrastructure provides services and assets for

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11:16

Nuveen's Nate Jones: Upward sloping muni yield curve...

The NAVigator ·

2023/01/20

Nate Jones, head of fund finance and Treasury at Nuveen, says that conditions and 'market nuances' from late in 2022 have carried into the new year, noting that the yield curve for municipal bonds is sloping upward even more than the plot on taxable bonds, which is creating opportunities for investors to benefit from using leverage to make closed-end muni returns attractive now. Jones also explains the December supply-demand imbalance in muni bonds, and why it might reoccur come tax time, and

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10:07

ASA Gold's Merk: The market is already pricing in a...

The NAVigator ·

2023/01/13

Axel Merk, chief investment officer of the ASA Gold and Precious Metals fund, says that the market is pricing in a recession and the start of rate cuts down the road, and the gold market is already reacting because it tends to lead in these cycles. Merk makes the case for owning both precious metals and the mining companies now, though he notes their different risk profile and uses; he points out that both are being embraced now because the miners would be lumped in with all equities and poised for

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08:57

Angel Oak's Pate: End of the rate-hike cycle will pay...

The NAVigator ·

2023/01/06

Cheryl Pate, senior portfolio manager for Angel Oak Capital -- manager of the Angel Oak Financial Strategies Income Term Trust -- says that it's late in the cycle for rate hikes, mid-cycle for banks in terms of margin expansion and early in the cycle for credit, and she noted that the financial services sector typically goes through a profit-margin expansion that's a 'lagged benefit' that should show up early in the year when the rate hikes stop. She expects that benefit to show up late in the year

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12:48

AICA's John Cole Scott: Expect the weak to get...

The NAVigator ·

2022/12/30

John Cole Scott, chief investment officer at Closed-End Fund Advisors -- the chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance -- says that investors looking for the top sector bets in the new year will want to look at some of 2022's weakest areas, most notably real estate investment trusts 'REITs' and real assets. He also expects international bonds and more to be in the sweet spot. Scott gave his look-ahead for the closed-end fund industry for 2023, and it's a year when he suggests investors take

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11:43

2022 Year in Review: Promising opportunities arise...

The NAVigator ·

2022/12/23

John Cole Scott, chief investment officer at Closed-End Fund Advisors -- the chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance -- takes a look back at the challenging times experienced by the closed-end fund industry this year, noting that all the news wasn't bad despite slower-than-expected growth for the industry and bigger-than-anticipated losses on the market. His basket of five funds for 2022 came out ahead of the market and, like many parts of the industry, is poised to rebound in the new

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09:06

VettaFi's Morris: For investors playing defense,...

The NAVigator ·

2022/12/16

Stacey Morris, head of energy research at VettaFi -- part of the team involved in the Alerian Energy Infrastructure Index suite -- says that energy markets are likely to remain tight and keep dealing with inflation in 2023, both of which can be tailwinds to energy companies and especially midstream companies, but she notes that the midstream/pipeline companies have cash-flow stability that makes them the more-defensive options in the energy space, and particularly attractive in a recessionary

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12:09

RiverNorth's O'Neill: 'Tis the season to go discount...

The NAVigator ·

2022/12/09

Steve O’Neill, who co-manages the closed-end fund trading strategies and oversees the closed-end fund analysts at RiverNorth, says the timing is right for closed-end fund investors looking for big discounts that will likely be shrinking right after the turn of the year as the tax harvesting process plays out. O'Neill discusses how the big discounts amount to extra gravy for investors hungry for better yields.

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10:44

Saratoga's Oberbeck: The Fed's moves have put BDCs in...

The NAVigator ·

2022/12/02

Chris Oberbeck, chairman and chief executive officer at Saratoga Investment Corp. -- one of the industry's largest publicly traded business-development companies -- says that BDCs have been a relative sweet spot during this year's troubled times largely because they benefited from being on the front end of rate hikes and turning them quickly into cash on the bottom line. While the companies must also deal with higher costs, he expects the trend to continue for at least as long as the Federal Reserve

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12:19

John Cole Scott goes discount shopping for Black Friday

The NAVigator ·

2022/11/25

With holiday shopping bargains on everyone's mind, John Cole Scott, chief investment officer at Closed-End Fund Advisors -- the chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance -- sorts through the big discounts in the closed-end fund world to come up with the best bargains, the most meaningful plays now, based not just on current sale prices but the value and income streams investors can unlock. In his search, he identified two equity and two fixed-income funds that might be a good addition to

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12:42

First Trust's Grayson: Interval funds are a way to...

The NAVigator ·

2022/11/18

Michael Grayson, portfolio manager for First Trust Capital Management -- where he oversees their Alternative Opportunities, Private Credit and Real Assets funds -- says that investors should be sacrificing some liquidity for the flexibility to get different assets into their portfolios and to have investments that capture most of the upside in bull-market times while protecting capital during market dislocations. That's how the funds he manages have fared over the last two years and he says that

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10:36

Oppenheimer's Penn: BDC payouts have improved, but...

The NAVigator ·

2022/11/11

Mitchel Penn, managing director of equity research at Oppenheimer & Co., says that business development companies have seen yields rising in line with higher interest rates, a trend he sees continuing while the Federal Reserve continues hiking rates. The higher rates have resulted in more credit risk with more borrowers struggling to make payments; as a result, unrealized losses at BDCs have increased, and while those setbacks remain within expected ranges this year, investors will want to watch the

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11:08

CEFA's Scott: Rate uncertainty creates values in muni...

The NAVigator ·

2022/11/04

John Cole Scott, chief investment officer at Closed-End Fund Advisors -- chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance -- says that today's rate uncertainty has created attractive entry points for some municipal-bond funds because they are trading at big discounts and, in many cases, have gone through a dividend cut, thereby reducing the potential for another cut moving forward. Scott doesn't minimize the pain the muni funds have experienced this year, but notes that investors who are brave

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11:48

Parametric's Milner: Closed-end funds are reaching a...

The NAVigator ·

2022/10/28

Mark Milner, senior investment strategist at Parametric Portfolio Associates, says that a lot of asset classes of closed-end funds have now reached double-digit discount territory, "which historically has been a good opportunity to buy closed-end funds," noting that current discounts allow investors to add to their portfolios or rebalance into funds creating greater value for their money. Milner does worry that year-end tax-loss harvesting in 2022 will be higher than in years past as a result of the

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10:25

Octagon's Lam: Rising rates are creating an...

The NAVigator ·

2022/10/21

Gretchen Lam, senior portfolio manager, Octagon Credit Investors -- sub-adviser on the XAI Octagon Floating Rate & Alternative Income Term Trust -- says that while economic conditions are challenging and that a recession will be bad for the credit markets, collateralized loan obligations and other loan products have held up relatively well during the current period of rising rates. They haven't been able to avoid the downdraft, she says, but they have outperformed other forms of credit, maintaining

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09:28

BlueBay's Farley: Event-driven investing 'should get...

The NAVigator ·

2022/10/14

Duncan Farley, portfolio manager at BlueBay Asset Management and manager of the BlueBay Destra International Event-Driven Credit Fund, says that the current economic and market conditions that are making headlines and rattling investors are actually creating something of a 'perfect storm' of opportunities that should make it easier to profit from alternative credit investments moving forward.

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