New Merrill Lynch report on Closed End Funds: Many choices for a diversified portfolio of dividend payers

u/laborboy1 · Reddit — r/dividends · January 08, 2026 at 23:31 · ⬆ 19 pts · 💬 13 comments  | View on Reddit ↗
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Author highlights a Merrill Lynch report on buy-rated CEFs and lists funds he considers buy-rated with decent Z scores for a diversified income basket.

Unpriced research observations (excluded from Calls and Returns):

CHY — LONG Author includes this fund in a list of Merrill Lynch buy-rated closed-end funds with decent premium/discount Z scores. He suggests an investor could hold a basket of about 20 CEFs with a 5% allocation each for a diversified yield around 10%. resolved_entity_name_mismatch

The buy rated funds with decent premium/discount Z scores--in my opinion--include: convertibles (CHY, CHI), covered calls (ETW, FFA, BXMX), muni (MQY, MVF), preferred (FLC, FPF), multi-sector (GOF with 17% dividend rate!), real estate (IGR, RFI, RQI), MLPs (NML), senior loans (EFT, JFR), and multi-sector (PHK).

CHI — LONG Author includes this fund in a list of Merrill Lynch buy-rated closed-end funds with decent premium/discount Z scores. He suggests an investor could hold a basket of about 20 CEFs with a 5% allocation each for a diversified yield around 10%. resolved_entity_name_mismatch

The buy rated funds with decent premium/discount Z scores--in my opinion--include: convertibles (CHY, CHI), covered calls (ETW, FFA, BXMX), muni (MQY, MVF), preferred (FLC, FPF), multi-sector (GOF with 17% dividend rate!), real estate (IGR, RFI, RQI), MLPs (NML), senior loans (EFT, JFR), and multi-sector (PHK).

ETW — LONG Author includes this fund in a list of Merrill Lynch buy-rated closed-end funds with decent premium/discount Z scores. He suggests an investor could hold a basket of about 20 CEFs with a 5% allocation each for a diversified yield around 10%. resolved_entity_name_mismatch

The buy rated funds with decent premium/discount Z scores--in my opinion--include: convertibles (CHY, CHI), covered calls (ETW, FFA, BXMX), muni (MQY, MVF), preferred (FLC, FPF), multi-sector (GOF with 17% dividend rate!), real estate (IGR, RFI, RQI), MLPs (NML), senior loans (EFT, JFR), and multi-sector (PHK).

FFA — LONG Author includes this fund in a list of Merrill Lynch buy-rated closed-end funds with decent premium/discount Z scores. He suggests an investor could hold a basket of about 20 CEFs with a 5% allocation each for a diversified yield around 10%. resolved_entity_name_mismatch

The buy rated funds with decent premium/discount Z scores--in my opinion--include: convertibles (CHY, CHI), covered calls (ETW, FFA, BXMX), muni (MQY, MVF), preferred (FLC, FPF), multi-sector (GOF with 17% dividend rate!), real estate (IGR, RFI, RQI), MLPs (NML), senior loans (EFT, JFR), and multi-sector (PHK).

BXMX — LONG Author includes this fund in a list of Merrill Lynch buy-rated closed-end funds with decent premium/discount Z scores. He suggests an investor could hold a basket of about 20 CEFs with a 5% allocation each for a diversified yield around 10%. resolved_entity_name_mismatch

The buy rated funds with decent premium/discount Z scores--in my opinion--include: convertibles (CHY, CHI), covered calls (ETW, FFA, BXMX), muni (MQY, MVF), preferred (FLC, FPF), multi-sector (GOF with 17% dividend rate!), real estate (IGR, RFI, RQI), MLPs (NML), senior loans (EFT, JFR), and multi-sector (PHK).

MQY — LONG Author includes this fund in a list of Merrill Lynch buy-rated closed-end funds with decent premium/discount Z scores. He suggests an investor could hold a basket of about 20 CEFs with a 5% allocation each for a diversified yield around 10%. resolved_entity_name_mismatch

The buy rated funds with decent premium/discount Z scores--in my opinion--include: convertibles (CHY, CHI), covered calls (ETW, FFA, BXMX), muni (MQY, MVF), preferred (FLC, FPF), multi-sector (GOF with 17% dividend rate!), real estate (IGR, RFI, RQI), MLPs (NML), senior loans (EFT, JFR), and multi-sector (PHK).

MVF — LONG Author includes this fund in a list of Merrill Lynch buy-rated closed-end funds with decent premium/discount Z scores. He suggests an investor could hold a basket of about 20 CEFs with a 5% allocation each for a diversified yield around 10%. resolved_entity_name_mismatch

The buy rated funds with decent premium/discount Z scores--in my opinion--include: convertibles (CHY, CHI), covered calls (ETW, FFA, BXMX), muni (MQY, MVF), preferred (FLC, FPF), multi-sector (GOF with 17% dividend rate!), real estate (IGR, RFI, RQI), MLPs (NML), senior loans (EFT, JFR), and multi-sector (PHK).

FLC — LONG Author includes this fund in a list of Merrill Lynch buy-rated closed-end funds with decent premium/discount Z scores. He suggests an investor could hold a basket of about 20 CEFs with a 5% allocation each for a diversified yield around 10%. resolved_entity_name_mismatch

The buy rated funds with decent premium/discount Z scores--in my opinion--include: convertibles (CHY, CHI), covered calls (ETW, FFA, BXMX), muni (MQY, MVF), preferred (FLC, FPF), multi-sector (GOF with 17% dividend rate!), real estate (IGR, RFI, RQI), MLPs (NML), senior loans (EFT, JFR), and multi-sector (PHK).

FPF — LONG Author includes this fund in a list of Merrill Lynch buy-rated closed-end funds with decent premium/discount Z scores. He suggests an investor could hold a basket of about 20 CEFs with a 5% allocation each for a diversified yield around 10%. resolved_entity_name_mismatch

The buy rated funds with decent premium/discount Z scores--in my opinion--include: convertibles (CHY, CHI), covered calls (ETW, FFA, BXMX), muni (MQY, MVF), preferred (FLC, FPF), multi-sector (GOF with 17% dividend rate!), real estate (IGR, RFI, RQI), MLPs (NML), senior loans (EFT, JFR), and multi-sector (PHK).

GOF — LONG Author includes this fund in a list of Merrill Lynch buy-rated closed-end funds with decent premium/discount Z scores. He highlights GOF's 17% dividend rate and suggests a CEF basket allocation for a diversified yield around 10%. resolved_entity_name_mismatch

The buy rated funds with decent premium/discount Z scores--in my opinion--include: convertibles (CHY, CHI), covered calls (ETW, FFA, BXMX), muni (MQY, MVF), preferred (FLC, FPF), multi-sector (GOF with 17% dividend rate!), real estate (IGR, RFI, RQI), MLPs (NML), senior loans (EFT, JFR), and multi-sector (PHK).

IGR — LONG Author includes this fund in a list of Merrill Lynch buy-rated closed-end funds with decent premium/discount Z scores. He suggests an investor could hold a basket of about 20 CEFs with a 5% allocation each for a diversified yield around 10%. resolved_asset_type_mismatch

The buy rated funds with decent premium/discount Z scores--in my opinion--include: convertibles (CHY, CHI), covered calls (ETW, FFA, BXMX), muni (MQY, MVF), preferred (FLC, FPF), multi-sector (GOF with 17% dividend rate!), real estate (IGR, RFI, RQI), MLPs (NML), senior loans (EFT, JFR), and multi-sector (PHK).

RFI — LONG Author includes this fund in a list of Merrill Lynch buy-rated closed-end funds with decent premium/discount Z scores. He suggests an investor could hold a basket of about 20 CEFs with a 5% allocation each for a diversified yield around 10%. resolved_entity_name_mismatch

The buy rated funds with decent premium/discount Z scores--in my opinion--include: convertibles (CHY, CHI), covered calls (ETW, FFA, BXMX), muni (MQY, MVF), preferred (FLC, FPF), multi-sector (GOF with 17% dividend rate!), real estate (IGR, RFI, RQI), MLPs (NML), senior loans (EFT, JFR), and multi-sector (PHK).

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