Retired Trader / Income Investor

[dickoncapecod]

Hi. Before retirement in 2008, I spent about 28 years on Wall Street, principally as a proprietary trader of bonds and fixed income futures and options for too many(!) firms including several Primary Government Securities Dealers. When I became too old and slow for trading, I spend another 15 years as a management consultant, mostly investigating and reporting on trading and investment "blow-ups" to senior management's, boards of directors and regulators.
When I retired, I began searching the universe of retail investment products that had never been available to me while employed because of conflict-of-interest and independence investment restrictions. Once my searches led me to bond-ish income closed end funds, I never looked back. My actively managed income CEF portfolio has supported my wife and me in retirement --- including her custodial ALZ care for the past 4 years --- while growing investment principal roughly four-fold. I have learned a great deal about CEFs and other investments from generous posters on other websites, and I hope to continue my education here.
Regards, Dick

 

[Qs Laptop]

Welcome to the board! You should fit right in here.

 

[pb4uski]

+1. What are you 3 favorite bond CEFs? Do you do any preferred stocks?

 

[dickoncapecod]

HI. I swap CEFs around in the portfolio in an effort to maximize income, but I'm mostly a PIMCO guy with affection for a few other managers. Right now my largest holding is PDI, followed by PFN and PDO. I currently hold smaller allocations to PAXS and PHK, and just started a position in old-friend-fallen-angel KIO today.
Years ago I held a number of individual preferreds as well as preferred CEFs --- in fact I owned muni CEFs too --- but the earned yields available in recent years on bondish CEFs have made those non-competitive for me.
Regards, Dick

 

[Flute McG]

I am SO GLAD to see you here! I just joined myself.

Flute

 

[dickoncapecod]

Yo Flute. Great. D

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

Welcome aboard!

 

[mebden]

Welcome to the forum dickoncapecod & Flute McG don't be afraid to ask questions lots of knowledgeable people here

 

[audreyh1]

Wow, you’re retired from Wall Street at a very auspicious time, just in time to see the mother of all blow ups in fixed income!

 

[Texas Proud]

Well, thanks for the info but all the ones I looked at except one was selling at a premium...

I like buying at a discount...

 

[Yoheadden]

Welcome aboard Dick,
Some of us consider this the best little corner of the internet.
Lots of friendly and helpful folks here.

 

[Koolau]

Welcome to the forum Dick. It sounds like you have a wealth of experience.

 

[Flyfish1]

Welcome aboard both of you ! Dick, I feel like we could learn a lot from you as well. I retired two years ago as an income investor. I have plenty of CEF's and my largest holdings are also PIMCO funds, PDI, PDO and PTY.
I also have a bunch of preffereds, baby bonds, mREIT's, eREITS's, individual dividend stocks, BDC's ,etc. Admittedly I have probably have too many positions but I have plenty of time to monitor them. I suspect as I get older I will trim and simplify my holdings. May I ask how many holdings do you typically carry in your portfolio?

 

[pb4uski]

One thing that I'm curious about is whether the OP has individual bonds as well as bond CEFs and why or why not? While I'm not keen on the time and effort needed to manage individual bonds and reinvest call and maturity proceeds I do like the ability to craft cash flows to our needs and use some call and maturity proceeds for spending rather that sell bond funds.

I'm looking at target maturity corporate bond ETFs from Invesco or Blackrock as a compromise.

 

[COcheesehead]

Glad you joined us. I am Mootsie from the Fidelity site. I needed another closed end fund buddy here.

 

[Montecfo]

Welcome aboard dickoncapecod! There are a few of us here that like and invest in CEFs. Will look forward to your insights and overall contributions!

 

[dickoncapecod]

Wow, you’re retired from Wall Street at a very auspicious time, just in time to see the mother of all blow ups in fixed income!

I was very fortunate....,I was still gathering cash from various sources before creating my initial retirement portfolio and had the advantage of "starting" from very attractive post-crash entry prices for almost everything. Better lucky than smart!
Regards, Dick

 

[Texas Proud]

Welcome aboard both of you ! Dick, I feel like we could learn a lot from you as well. I retired two years ago as an income investor. I have plenty of CEF's and my largest holdings are also PIMCO funds, PDI, PDO and PTY.
I also have a bunch of preffereds, baby bonds, mREIT's, eREITS's, individual dividend stocks, BDC's ,etc. Admittedly I have probably have too many positions but I have plenty of time to monitor them. I suspect as I get older I will trim and simplify my holdings. May I ask how many holdings do you typically carry in your portfolio?

I am a bit curious.... I looked at a few of these and it appears that they are very similar...

What is the difference that you see? IOW, they all seem to be leveraged HY... maybe invested in different industries or something?

 

[aja8888]

Hi Dick, welcome aboard from an old Connecticut Yankee (now stuck in Texas) who is a fixed income kind of investor.

 

[dickoncapecod]

I am a bit curious.... I looked at a few of these and it appears that they are very similar...

What is the difference that you see? IOW, they all seem to be leveraged HY... maybe invested in different industries or something?

Hi. I agree that there is a lot of similarity within the PIMCO taxable suite. PIMCO manages top-down from investment committee strategies, and CEF managers typically execute on those strategies within their individual CEF investment objectives and guidelines. However, I don't see them as mostly leveraged high yield. They do have HY allocations, but those tend to be in the 20-35% range. cefdata.com actually does the credit breakdown work, and most PIMCO CEF portfolii average credit ratings are BBB. Despite the similarities, investors price these pups differently, and I try to exploit attractive market price/premium opportunities as they arise.
Regards, Dick

 

[dickoncapecod]

Glad you joined us. I am Mootsie from the Fidelity site. I needed another closed end fund buddy here.

Hi. Your handle here appears to reveal that you are a Wisconsin item--yes? I did my beer-soaked undergrad in WI. Will the Pack ever be back?
Regards, Dick

 

[Gumby]

....old Connecticut Yankee (now stuck in Texas)....

There's an easy way to remedy that: I-10 East to Jacksonville, turn left on I-95 North. Keep going until you get back to the Land of Steady Habits.

 

[COcheesehead]

Hi. Your handle here appears to reveal that you are a Wisconsin item--yes? I did my beer-soaked undergrad in WI. Will the Pack ever be back?
Regards, Dick

Yep, born and raised in Wisconsin, but have been in Colorado now for 30+ years. I had to explain to my wife the Packer thing. She is a Colorado native. I told her if you are born in Wisconsin you have no choice. They stamp “Packer Fan” on your birth certificate.

 

[Phroig]

I was a decades-long lurker on the old Morningstar discussion boards, and learnt about CEFs there, so a special welcome!

 

[street]

Welcome!! You will bring a lot of experience to ER which is a great thing.