An 11.6% Dividend We Love (But It’s Still a Sell)

Sometimes there’s a dividend play out there that we love—but it’s just the wrong time to buy it. That’s the story with an 11.6%-paying closed-end fund (CEF) that’s pretty well-known (for a CEF, that is!). It’s the Gabelli Equity Trust (GAB) , run by Mario Gabelli, whom you may have seen on the cable news channels over the years. To get at why we’re dodging this well-run fund now, we need to first talk about a phrase you may have heard a lot more from said business channels lately: “soft data.” Ring a bell? Basically it refers to numbers that are more about feelings (or “vibes” as the kids call them these days) that people have about the economy: surveys of consumers and companies, expectations of economic conditions in the future, that sort of thing.… Read more