Contrarian Outlook

The Federal Reserve cut interest rates by an “historic” 50 basis points. Then, interest rates soared. Wait. What? The Federal Funds Rate is a target (technically a target range) that influences...

I know things feel pretty tense right now. But don’t be pulled into the trap of thinking everything is up in the air these days. Truth is, there are always rock-solid trends out there that no one can...

With more volatility likely as we move past the election and into late 2024, retirement planning might not be top of mind for you right now. I get it. But with investing—income investing,...

One often-overlooked way for closed-end funds (CEFs) to give us a profit boost is for management to buy back a fund’s shares. By now, buybacks are probably familiar to most investors: With “regular”...

Many investors are worried about a recession. Or The Federal Reserve easing too fast. Or not fast enough! And then we have the upcoming election. Buckle up, my fellow contrarian. Fair enough. But...

If you’re like me, when you see an outsized dividend yield, you stop for a second and immediately do the mental math. How much would we get back in payouts from, say, a 9.3% payer if we were to...

If you’re as bullish on oil as I am, let’s look past vanilla bean favorites like Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) and Chevron (NYSE:CVX). Great companies but a bit pricey, as they only yield 3% to 4%. We’re...

I get it if you’re a bit wary of this latest market rally: We’ve got a volatile (to say the least!) election nowadays away. And while the Fed says rates are headed lower, there’s still a lingering...

I have to laugh when I hear a pundit say that individual investors can’t beat the S&P 500 (and you and I both know this is something we hear quite regularly!). Truth is, it’s not that hard. Heck,...

Last week’s oil-price drop has set us up to buy some top-flight energy dividends on the cheap. We’re going to grab one with a “hidden” 10.3% yield in just a moment. First, this buy window goes well...

If there’s anything better than monthly dividends, well, we contrarians don’t want to know about it. Getting paid on the same schedule as our bills (monthly!), makes retirement planning easy. We...

Of course, we all love it when the stock market soars like it has. But what if stocks pull back? We’ve already seen three big drops this year, so it’s fair to think another one could be lurking...

I know it goes without saying that we’ve all loved watching our dividend stocks skyrocket this year. But October—as always, it seems—has amped-up the volatility. The end of the year looks choppy,...

When I show you a chart like the one below, your first thought might be that we’re looking at, say, the recent stock performance of NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA)—or maybe a biopharma firm that just dropped a...

“Buy bonds!” – Contrarian Outlook, 2H 2022 Two years later, the herd finally hopped on our fixed-income bandwagon… “Buy bonds!” – Wall Street, 2H 2024 Yes, it is satisfying to be right. But it also...

Normally when interest rates fall, we closed-end fund (CEF) investors are tempted to pick up a fund like the 7.3%-paying Royce Small-Cap Trust (NYSE:RVT). It seems like a particularly savvy move...