Funds Outperforming High Yield ETFs While Yielding 8%

So far in 2017, corporate and taxable bond-oriented closed-end funds ((CEFs)) have significantly outperformed the iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond Fund (NYSEARCA: HYG) and the SPDR Bloomberg Barclays High Yield Bond ETF (NYSEARCA: JNK). While this has caused discounts to NAV to shrink considerably for those CEFs, many remain discounted relative to their portfolio's market value while also providing yields above 8% and overall dividend growth potential.
At the same time, both JNK and HYG have slashed dividends significantly which, in combination with poor price performance, has resulted in these funds underperforming CEFs both in 2017 and over a longer time horizon.
Looking at 2017, we see that both HYG and JNK have seen about a 5% total return year-to-date:

Meanwhile, the CEF Insider Taxable Bond Sub-Index has seen a YTD gain of 9.46%. This index tracks the total return of a variety of corporate and taxable bond CEFs with both specialized and diversified investment strategies. This index has steadily and consistently outperformed both index funds throughout 2017:
The top performing taxable bond-focused CEFs are dominated by Pimco, with the PIMCO Strategic Income Fund (NYSE: RCS), PIMCO Corporate & Income Strategy Fund (NYSE: PCN), PIMCO Income Opportunity Fund (NYSE: PKO), PIMCO Corporate & Income Opportunities Fund (NYSE: PTY), and PIMCO Income Strategy Fund (NYSE: PFL) seeing total returns on a market price basis of 17.86% or higher:
... Read more