BST News and Press, BlackRock Science and Technology Trust of Beneficial Interest From 03/12/22

For income investors, closed-end funds remain an attractive investment class that covers a variety of asset classes and promise high distributions and reasonable total returns. Closed-end funds are generally characterized by higher volatility and deeper drawdowns than the broad market...

Today, we are looking at how to tell if a fund might be paying a sustainable distribution or not. We use several examples covering both fixed-income and equity funds to help highlight their differences. Overall, fixed-income funds are more straightforward to analyze than equity fu...

There are several reasons why closed-end funds can pay higher distribution yields to investors. Closed-end funds can invest in more complex investments and include leverage or other strategies to help generate higher yields. These more stable payouts from these funds can be a mass...

Nobody begins an investment career with a fully-formed philosophy; it’s an achievement you can only realize after being exposed to life’s lessons. Twelve years ago, while “playing in the stock market,” I found myself overbalanced on natural gas but was save...

Reducing the tax obligation of an investor can mean greater returns when more of that cash is kept. When looking through closed-end funds, you will run across many funds that are tax-friendly. These are often equity funds to receive qualified dividends and long-term capital gains;...

Return of capital is often misunderstood as always being a bad thing when showing up in the tax character of distribution. However, there is a significant benefit to return of capital for those held in a taxable account as a way to defer tax obligations. These can be deferred pote...

BME is highly concentrated on large caps, but it is yet to recover from the pandemic. It has low dividend yield, thus not suitable for income-seeking investors. Short- and medium-term returns are low when compared with its peers. For further details see: BME: High Concen...

AIO is a hybrid convertible fund that focuses on tech and AI investments, but they also have significant exposure to common equities. As tech has been in sell-off mode, it would seem that the convertible sleeve and greater diversification of the portfolio have saved the fund from some...

For income investors, closed-end funds remain an attractive investment class that covers a variety of asset classes and promise high distributions and reasonable total returns. Closed-end funds are generally characterized by higher volatility and deeper drawdowns than the broad market...

I update my past lists of my top ten monthly payers, which I began compiling in 2015. I rank monthly payers by total return and dependability. The list has a number of new additions, though the old stalwarts remain. For further details see: My Top Ten Monthly Payers