Calamos Global Growth & Income Fund (CVLOX)

To get diversification in world market, investor can choose to invest in world allocation balanced fund. The following Calamos Global Growth & Income is one of the consistent performer funds in world allocation balanced fund. The fund invests in various investment vehicles such as fixed incomes, domestic equities, foreign equities, etc. Details about this fund's review can be found below.

Calamos Global Growth & Income A (CVLOX)

The Calamos Global Growth & Income fund is seeking high long-term total return through capital appreciation and to provide current income. The fund invests majority of assets in a globally-diversified portfolio of convertible, equity, and fixed-income securities without regard to market capitalization. This CVLOX fund invests >40% of assets in securities of foreign issuers.

CVLOX Fund Details

CVLOX fund details

• Fund Inception Date: September 1996
• Ticker Symbol: CVLOX
• CUSIP: 128119500
• Beta (3yr):  1.15
• Rank in Category (YTD): 50
• Category: World Allocation
• Distribution: 1.29%
• Dividend frequency: quarterly
• Capital Gains: if any, will be distributed annually
• Numbers of Years Up: 10 years
• Numbers of Years Down: 4 years
• Total Assets: $1.77 billion

updated on 6/19/2011

Top Performer Convertible Securities CEFs Funds June 2011

Background about convertible bond

Convertible bonds offer the opportunity to convert a bond into the company's stock. This will give the investor higher appreciation potential if the company's stock value increases. This bond also has potentially lower coupon payments when compared to non-convertible bonds with similar credit rating and average maturity features. In some market conditions, these convertible bonds may carry potential risks and advantages similar to bonds, and in others their risks and benefits are more similar to equities.

Convertible Bond Closed End Funds

Many investors don't know a lot about closed end fund, however closed end funds can provide attractive opportunity for long term investor to invest in these funds.Closed End Funds are traded like stocks or equities. These funds can be either traded on premium or discount to its Net Asset Value or NAV. Most of these funds are part of leverage funds.

The following top performers information is compiled from financial website such as CEFConnect, Morningstar, and CEFA.
The 10 Top Performer Convertible Securities CEF Funds June 2011:

1. Putnam High Income Securities
2. Calamos Convertible & High Income
3. Advent Claymore Convertible Securities & Income
4. AGIC Convertible & Income II
5. Gabelli Convertible & Income Securities
6. Advent Claymore Global Convertible Securities & Income
7. Ellsworth Fund Ltd
8. Calamos Convertible Oppportunity Income
9. AGIC Convertible & Income
10. Bancroft Fund Ltd

Vanguard Intermediate-Term Bond Index Fund (VBIIX)

As one of the largest mutual funds family, Vanguard offers variety of index funds. There are several benefit in investing in Vanguard funds such as they provide lower fees, they are easy to access from brokerage or Vanguard brokerage, they provide instant portfolio diversification. Vanguard funds also rank among the best fund in various categories like bonds or equities. The Vanguard Intermediate-Term Bond Index is one of the best bond fund offered by Vanguard. This fund is passively managed and offers lower expense ratio fee. You can find the details about this fund below.

Vanguard Intermediate-Term Bond Index Inv (VBIIX)

Vanguard VBIIX fund details

The Vanguard Intermediate-Term Bond Index fund is seeking to track the performance of a market-weighted bond index with an intermediate-term dollar-weighted average maturity. The fund uses a passive management investment approach to track the performance of the Barclays Capital U.S. 5-10 Year Government/ Credit Float Adjusted Index. The fund invests most of assets (>80%) in bonds held in the index. The fund maintains a dollar-weighted average maturity consistent with that of the index, between 5 and 10 years.

VBIIX Fund Details

• Fund Inception Date: March 1994
• Ticker Symbol: VBIIX (Investor Class)
• CUSIP: 921937306
• Beta: 1.66
• Rank in category: 20
• Category: Intermediate-Term Bond
• Yield: 3.78%
• Turnover Rate: 46%
• Number of Years Up: 15 year
• Number of Years Down: 1 year
• Number of bonds: 1140
• Average maturity: 7.3 years
• Average duration: 6.3 years
• Net assets: $11.7 billion
• Average Coupon: 4.7%

updated on 6/7/2011

Top Performer World Bond Funds June 2011

With stabilizing world economy, fixed income investors will be wondering where to put their investment money. World bond funds offer instant portfolio diversification with investments in variety of bonds of different countries and sectors. This type of bond can mitigate the investment risks involved if some countries go bankrupt or are unable to pay their debt. This international bond fund may invest in US government bond or corporate bond, European bond, emerging market bonds, etc. This world bond funds may provide opportunity for investor to invest in fast growth developing countries (Indonesia, China, Russia, Brazil, etc) as well as other developed countries (German, France, Japan, UK, etc).

Top Performer World Bond Fund 2011

Several reasons to invest in these World Bond Funds are:

• These funds can provide global exposure hence it invest in bond markets worldwide
• These funds may provide attractive yield than domestic bond
• Investor can have direct access to experienced bond manager
• These funds may provide better return than domestic bond

The following list is compiled based on the fund performance in 2011 (up to June 2011). The fund is researched from various website and magazine like Morningstar, Yahoo Finance, Google Finance, USNews, etc. The 12 Top Performer World Bond Mutual Funds 2011 are:

1. Forward EM Corporate Debt Investor
2. Loomis Sayles International Bond A
3. Prudential Global Total Return A
4. Invesco International Total Return A
5. American Century International Bond Inv
6. GMO International Bond III
7. T. Rowe Price International Bond
8. EuroPac International Bond A
9. PIMCO Foreign Bond (Unhedged) A
10. Columbia International Bond A
11. Putnam Global Income A
12. Templeton Global Total Return A

T. Rowe Price High Yield Fund (PRHYX)

Bond funds are very popular among conservative investor as well as retiree. Bond funds can provide regular income to support personal expense, home improvement project, etc. One of the highest yielding bonds is known as high yield bond or non investment grade bond. This bond is also known as junk bond. This bond usually is lower rated than investment grade bond. It can come either from government bond (especially emerging market bond), and corporate bond.

For past article, I have provided the top performer high yield bond funds 2011 (up to May 2011). The following T. Rowe Price High Yield Fund is well known and has received various awards from various sources such as Morningstar, USNews , etc. Details about this fund will be described below.

T. Rowe Price High Yield Fund (Ticker: PRHYX)

TRP High Yield Fund details

This T. Rowe Price High Yield Fund is seeking high current income and some capital appreciation from bond portfolio. This T. Rowe Price fund will focus primarily on the higher-quality range (BB and B) of the high-yield market. The fund invests most of its net assets (>80%) in a broadly diversified portfolio of high yield corporate bonds or junk bonds, income-producing convertible bonds, and below investment grade preferred stocks. The fund's weighted average maturity is normally in the 5- to 10-year range.

Note: This non investment grade bonds represent a higher risk of default and tend to be more volatile than higher-rated bonds (i.e. investment grade bonds).

Vanguard Intermediate Term Treasury Fund (VFITX)

Bond mutual funds can invest in wide range of securities such as corporate debt, government securities, mortgage backed securities, asset backed securities, foreign bond, etc. This article will feature one of the intermediate government bond funds by Vanguard, Vanguard Intermediate-Term Treasury fund. This Vanguard fund invests mainly in treasuries securities or government bonds (including treasury bills, notes, and bonds). This government bond fund is usually considered one of the safest investments because they are backed by US government credit. The income from this bond is usually tax free from state and local taxes, but not from federal income taxes.

Most diversified bond fund may have about 10-40% of asset in government bond. Rule of thumb is to have some portion of your asset portfolio in this government bond fund. Note: Hence everyone is anticipating of double recession and debt woes, some of the diversified bond fund has reduced most of government bond from its assets. Recently, PIMCO Total Return fund has net short of this government bond in its fund portfolio.

Vanguard Intermediate-Term Treasury Investor (Ticker: VFITX)

The Vanguard Intermediate-Term Treasury fund seeks to provide a moderate and sustainable current income level. The fund mainly invests >80% of assets in U.S. Treasury bills, notes and bonds issued by U.S. Treasury. This Vanguard fund is anticipated to maintain a dollar-weighted average maturity of 5 to 10 years.

Top Performing Option Strategies Equity Closed End Funds 2011

Introduction

Closed End Fund is similar but different from mutual fund. Like Mutual Funds, Closed-End Funds also has various classes such as taxable bond CEF, Municipal bond CEF, US Equity Funds, Non US Funds, etc. Unlike mutual funds, these closed end funds (CEFs) are traded like stocks or equities. The funds also can be traded at premium or discount from its net asset value (NAV). These all features may provide additional incentive to invest in these funds.

Top Performer Option Equity CEFs 2011

One of these equity classes is Equity Options or Options Arbitrage or Option Strategies Funds. These Equity funds are also known as covered call strategy funds. These funds usually invest in collections of stocks with call options selling on either individual stocks or stock indices. Some other funds may also purchase put options to protect the portfolio from significant drops in stock market due to market volatility.

These funds usually provide high income and return from stock dividends, premium from selling call options, as well as increase of stocks values. Most of the fund may have high distribution rate or dividend yield. Please not some of the distributions may also include Return of Capital (ROC). These type of funds may be destructive to investor or shareholder.

The following top performers list has been compiled from variety of closed end fund website such as CEFA, CEFconnect, and Morningstar.

The 15 Top Performing Option Strategies Equity Closed End Funds June 2011 are:

1. Dow 30 Enhanced Premium & Income (DPO)
2. PIMCO Global StocksPLUS & Income (PGP)
3. Nuveen Core Equity Alpha (JCE)
4. NFJ Dividend Interest & Premium (NFJ)
5. ING International High Dividend Equity Income (IID)
6. BlackRock International Growth & Income Trust (BGY)
7. ING Global Equity Dividend & Premium Opportunity
8. AGIC International & Premium Strategy
9. BlackRock Global Opportunities
10. EV Tax-Managed Global Fund
11. NASDAQ Premium Income & Growth
12. Dow 30 Premium & Dividend Income
13. EV Tax-Managed Global Buy-Write Opportunities
14. Columbia Seligman Premium Technology
15. Cohen & Steers Global Income Builder

Funds details can be found on below table. The funds' information is updated on June 11th, 2011.