An Activist's ETF That's Yielding 7.8% And Beating The Market

Recently I've been writing about RiverNorth Opportunities Fund (RIV), and I’ve decided that it’s time for me and RIV to part ways. With the distribution hike to levels that I do not believe can be sustained and a rights offering that will take a toll on existing shareholder value, I’ve closed my position in RiverNorth Opportunities Fund’s (RIV).
I continue to like the concept of an aggressively managed fund of closed-end funds. There are several of these funds of funds, but most of them fail to meet the level of active management I’m looking for. The one that does is Saba Capital’s Closed End Funds ETF (CEFS), my topic for today.
The Fund CEFS is a new ETF (inception March 20, 2017, so just over six months old). It hasn’t seemed to have gotten much traction, however. It has assets under management of only $19.3M. Although that is up from the $11.1M in May when I last looked (Dividend Yield At 7.9% From Saba Capital's ETF Of CEFs), it remains tiny.

I'll describe the fund here briefly, repeating what I said about it in May. Saba Capital has been a leading activist investor in the closed-end fund space over the past few years. They take large positions in high-discount CEFs and pressure managers to narrow the discount, sometimes joining forces with other activists. CEFS is their first publicly traded fund. It provides an investor access to Saba Capital's portfolio managers who have extensive experience trading... Read more

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