Best Closed End Funds for 2013 | Stock & Bond CEF

This post is about the best closed end funds for 2013. The top funds are DNP Select Income, PIMCO Global StocksPLUS & Income, Central GoldTrust, DWS Municipal Income Trust, etc.

Introduction

Closed-end funds are similar to mutual funds. As one of investment funds, closed end funds have a diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds, or a mix of the two. They are managed by portfolio manager. It can be either passively or actively managed. It regularly distributes dividends and capital gains.

One of the differences between mutual funds and closed-end funds (CEF’s) is closed end funds are traded like stocks on a stock exchange such as NYSE or NASDAQ. Mutual funds are also known as open-end funds.

Top Closed End Funds

These closed end funds are selected based on its performance and popularity among investors. It is also recognized by various financial website or magazine such as Morningstar, etc. You can find the fund review below as well.

The 5 Best Closed End Funds for 2013 are:

1. DNP Select Income (DNP)
2. PIMCO Global StocksPLUS & Income (PGP)
3. Central GoldTrust (GTU)
4. PIMCO Corporate & Income Opportunity (PTY)
5. DWS Municipal Income Trust (KTF)

Best Short Term Bond Mutual Funds: Investment Strategy

When investors are afraid about interest rate hikes, they should look into shorter term to intermediate term bonds. Short-term bonds invest mainly in investment-grade securities of government, corporate and other U.S. fixed-incomes. These bonds usually have duration of 1 to 3.5 years (or, if duration is not available, the average effective maturities of the bonds will be 1 to 4 years). These bonds are attractive to fairly conservative investors, because they are less sensitive to interest rates than portfolios with longer duration.

These shorter term bonds can protect investor from Armageddon of losing their investment bond value. Typically, bond value is moving different direction from its yield (i.e. when yield is increasing, the bond value will decrease, and vice versa). This means bond value will decrease during the interest rate hikes condition.

There are 4 ways to invest in these short term bonds:

1. Individual bonds – investor can choose an attractive individual bond for their accounts (taxable or tax deferred account)
2. Mutual Funds – mutual fund can provide variety of short term bonds selection for asset diversification. This article will focus on short term bond funds.
3. Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) – low fee and diversification has made ETF as the first choice for investors
4. Closed End Funds (CEFs) – Although they are not popular among investors, bond CEFs can provide an attractive choice to investors

Top 7 Exchange Traded Funds 2013 | Stock and Bond ETF

The top 7 exchange traded funds for 2013 are SPDR S&P 500, Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets ETF, SPDR Gold Shares, etc. You can find the best ETFs list in this post.

Introduction

One of the investment funds is exchange traded funds or ETF’s. ETFs act like regular stock; they consist of portfolios of stocks, bonds, other funds, or combination. Most of the ETF’s are an index fund. This index fund typically track a specific index benchmark such as S&P 500 index, MSCI EAFE Index, Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Bond Index, etc.

You can choose many different classes of this fund. Some of them are emerging markets stock ETF, international stock ETF, technology sector ETF, inflation protected bond ETF, and more. You may need to pay for the brokerage fee if you are using a regular stock broker. Some online brokerages do provide free ETF’s for their customers.

Best ETF’s

These funds are selected based on its popularity among investors. They also provide low cost investment option for investors. You can find each fund review below.

Top 7 Exchange Traded Funds for 2013 are:

1. SPDR S&P 500 (SPY)
2. iShares MSCI EAFE Index (EFA)
3. Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (VWO)
4. Vanguard REIT Index ETF (VNQ)
5. SPDR Gold Shares (GLD)