Readers Find Some Weird Winners

INCOME INVESTING

- Jeffrey R. Kosnett

Bond rates are plunging, banks pay next to nothing, and stocks are so rich that the S&P 500 index yields a paltry 1.4%. My mailbox is thus brimming with queries about offbeat, high-distribution investments. Many are leveraged funds, rely on options and futures trading, or extend high-rate loans to less credit-worthy borrowers. Some augment regular income payments with periodic returns of capital. That is tolerable when a fund manufactures enough trading profits or capital gains to cover these emoluments. But returned capital does not count as “yield” and is not a dividend. (It does postpone a possible capital gains tax bill.)