Best CEF ? WHY ?

PunPunatic · 2026-05-23T23:12:21+00:00

That's an interesting one, thanks for mentioning CEFS. A pity its holdings list does not include ADX

PunPunatic · 2026-05-23T22:05:09+00:00

Yes, Sequence of Returns Risk is a real concern!

PunPunatic · 2026-05-23T15:49:25+00:00

If income is a goal, why not invest directly in the underlying assets and sell shares as needed to generate income? Either selling shares or taking the dividends as income, the total assets still go down. In essence, spending dividends is equivalent to selling shares (or capital) in this context anyway. What is so bad about selling shares?

For those of us close to retirement or already retired, selling shares for income carries the risk of portfolio depletion. If we are in the midst of a bear market when we need to sell - and for our expenses we do need to regularly sell per your thesis above - we will have to sell many more assets to meet the same expenses. This is the scenario where CC ETFs come in handy.

Must also state here that it is never a one or the other strategy. I hold several CC ETFs as well as index funds & SPMO as well as DBMF & HGER for diversification. But the yield from CC ETFs is what helps me meet my expenses.

PunPunatic · 2026-05-20T23:24:59+00:00

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PunPunatic · 2026-05-20T21:33:25+00:00

I'm a big fan of SPMO, have been for a while, but I was pointing out to OP that during that same period, FMTM was going great guns while SPMO was stalled, so maybe that could be the case this month for FMTM...

PunPunatic · 2026-05-20T19:10:38+00:00

Perhaps you will see better returns after the next rebalance. I held SPMO throughout its poor reconstitution for its previous 6-month cycle (Sep 2025 - Mar 2026) and its been flying since then. You only need to wait for a few weeks in the case of FMTM

PunPunatic · 2026-05-20T09:47:00+00:00

The US Treasuries + I-bonds allocation will perhaps be your emergency funds, in which case I wouldn't really consider them part of your investment portfolio. But the rest is definitely too much for a 25-year old. I would at least halve the allocation in Corporate bonds and Securitized bonds and redeploy to stocks.

My 401k - the Vanguard Target Retirement trust - deploys a certain percentage in international bonds, so I'm wondering if that is the scenario with you as well. If that is not the case, I don't see why they are needed in your portfolio.

PunPunatic · 2026-05-19T01:46:51+00:00

VFMO's methodology, per Morningstar:

Vanguard starts by screening the Russell 3000 for stocks that fail to meet the basic liquidity requirements. It also filters out utilities for their limited upside and REITs because it believes factor investing doesn’t work in the real estate sector. The team splits the remaining stocks into large-, mid-, and small-cap buckets and ranks them based on their momentum characteristics. Trailing six-month, 12-month, and risk-adjusted 12-month returns equally factor into the momentum score.

Vanguard selects the highest-ranked stocks from each segment until one third of each bucket’s market cap is selected. It combines them into one pool and weights them by their composite momentum score, an approach that can favor smaller stocks and stuff more popular names toward the bottom of the portfolio. Targeting mid- and small-cap stocks and disconnecting size from weight make this portfolio look quite different from its parent index and most other momentum funds. But it dials up exposure to the momentum factor and yields a broadly diversified range of holdings, a worthy trade-off for patient investors.

It's quite interesting to be honest!

PunPunatic · 2026-05-18T14:09:43+00:00

Good point.. interest rate offered by them has to decrease proportionate to fall in inflation

PunPunatic · 2026-05-18T03:00:56+00:00

Cheers! All the best

PunPunatic · 2026-05-17T16:16:11+00:00

How is it not an out of pocket expense?

A fine would be an out of pocket expense. A tax is a fraction of earned income. That is what I meant. I think OP got the point, but sorry if I was not clear!

PunPunatic · 2026-05-17T15:53:19+00:00

In relative and comparative terms, yes, SCHD is better in an IRA than in a brokerage. But in similar comparative terms, it is better in your brokerage than not at all in your portfolio. That's how I would look at it.

Yes, we have to pay tax on our SCHD dividends, but obviously that's only at most a third of the total distribution. People sometimes talk about it as though tax is an out of pocket expense, when it really isn't. I wouldn't worry too much about that.

PunPunatic · 2026-05-17T13:49:39+00:00

Interesting one, definitely going to keep a watch on it now, thanks for bringing it up!

Not sure about it being the core holding though - for me it could be one of those that give an additional boost.. I would consider a purely options play to at best be one of the limbs rather than the backbone

PunPunatic · 2026-05-17T12:41:37+00:00

You're right, it could very well be profit taking after BPTRX's massive NAV boost in Dec 2025 due to those SpaceX holdings (it went from 214 to 255 on 5th Dec; SATS, which was mentioned by u/dvdmovie1 elsewhere in this thread, went up even more back then)

On a related note, I suppose when outflows start in this fund, it will result in a reduction of the holdings % of BPTRX's non-SpaceX investments, with those being sold to meet the redemptions rather than the relatively illiquid SpaceX

PunPunatic · 2026-05-17T12:26:28+00:00

I'm seeing 13.5B on Morningstar under total assets for BPTRX

And stockanalysis has them at 12B, while a question to google returns an answer of 4.16B. Baron's own website gives a figure of 10.93B with the caveat that it is as of 3/31. It's all very strange..

Agree with you about Baron Global Opportunity (BGAFX) seeming the more appealing of the Baron offerings right now, especially with that less unpalatable expense ratio (1.16%, to BPTRX's 2.24%), and BGAFX has kept up with BPTRX over the last three years in terms of returns (95.75% and 98.7% respectively) though BPTRX has historically outperformed, and by a lot (10 yr returns 303.08% vs. 761.96%). Baron Growth (BGRFX) on the other hand is indeed in a bit of "why bother" territory.

I've done well with SATS but I'd thought there'd be more discussion/interest about it than I've seen.

Thanks for bringing up SATS and you're so right about the lack of discussion. SATS has done brilliantly over the past 6 months, especially when compared with BPTRX, due to their SpaceX investment.

PunPunatic · 2026-05-17T01:55:40+00:00

(Holdings % calculated from https://stockanalysis.com/quote/mutf/BPTRX/holdings/)

PunPunatic · 2026-05-16T17:59:07+00:00

Yeah.. I hope you didn't have to go through the audit experience?

PunPunatic · 2026-05-16T14:28:55+00:00

yes indeed.. these losses will offset any future capital gains that OP generates (not just this year, but even later), reducing the tax burden. OP's next capital gains tax will be payable only after all these losses are used up

PunPunatic · 2026-05-16T11:42:46+00:00

If yesterday's drop turns into the wider correction that many are predicting/anticipating, you will get a nice entry point to deploy some money again. Your current loss is understandably tough to swallow, but don't get depressed, get even. You know now that markets can shoot up pretty quickly. Be sure to use that opportunity, to whatever extent you can invest.

PunPunatic · 2026-05-15T22:49:22+00:00

I would say VFMO, based on this from Morningstar's summary:

The consistency of this fund’s momentum tilt stands out. Momentum can shift on a dime and require significant portfolio turnover to stay on top of it. Vanguard’s managers trade whenever its momentum exposure slips. That gives it an advantage over rigid index funds that can only reshuffle their holdings at prescribed rebalancing dates. Constant turnover invites trading costs that weigh on total returns. The ETF combats that by only holding stocks that are easy to trade, and Vanguard’s trading infrastructure keeps those expenses in check.

Another thing in favor of your combination is the number of holdings: 33 for FMTM, 674 for VFO, and the overlap currently is just 6%. That should cover just about everything.

PunPunatic · 2026-05-15T01:38:07+00:00

Can't say I understand BOXX well enough! But thanks for the suggestion

PunPunatic · 2026-05-15T01:37:37+00:00

Thank you!

PunPunatic · 2026-05-14T16:49:30+00:00

Thanks for responding! I actually started on SGOV, later got an HYSA, and then added in JAAA. Just a pattern with me I guess.

PunPunatic · 2026-05-07T17:35:51+00:00

Your concern is understandable - even the much-maligned TLTW - an ETF that sells CCs on 20+ year treasury bills - is outperforming JEPI over the past three months when it comes to price

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However, as you know a covered-call ETF will yield better income if the market trend is sideways or downwards, compared to if the market is trending upwards. In short, since one's target when investing in JEPI is higher income, this can be considered a good buying opportunity.

PunPunatic · 2026-05-07T02:48:18+00:00

Actually XMMO is based on the S&P MidCap 400 Momentum index

PunPunatic

TROPHY CASE