Top Investment Grade Bond Closed End Funds

Investment grade bond closed end funds invest mainly in high quality fixed income. These funds may invest in U.S. bonds and foreign bonds depending on the fund’s objective.

Popular Fixed Income Funds

Closed end funds are traded like stocks and ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds). These investment grade bond funds invest in corporate as well as government debts. Some may provide high yield income for investors.

The top performing list is sorted based on its year to date performance in 2014. You can find the fund review, performance, expense ratio, dividend yield, fund’s NAV, management, leverage, fund’s sponsor, premium/discount info, etc.

Top investment grade bond closed end funds are:

1. PIMCO Corporate & Income Opportunity (PTY) – 14.34%
2. Guggenheim Credit Allocation Fund (GGM) – 12.51%
3. PIMCO Corporate & Income Strategy (PCN) – 12.41%
4. Invesco Bond Fund (VBF)
5. JH Investors Trust (JHI)
6. MS Income Securities (ICB)
7. Cutwater Select Income Fund (CSI)
8. Western Asset IG Defined Opp (IGI)
9. Western Asset Global Corp Defined Opp (GDO)
10. BlackRock Credit Allocation Income (BTZ)

Best Real Estate ETFs 2014

Real estate ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) are investing mainly in real estate companies including REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts). These stock ETFs may provide high yield of income for investors.

Best REIT Exchange Traded Funds

Real estate funds use their assets to purchase real estate investment trusts (REITs), which invest in and own commercial real estate properties. Generally, a REIT offers a high yield because it's required to distribute a large amount of its taxable income to its shareholders in the form of a dividend.

These top real estate ETFs in 2014 are sorted based on its year to date performance in 2014. You can find the fund details and review below. Some of these ETFs can be bought for free from variety of brokerages such as Fidelity, Schwab, TD Ameritrade, and Vanguard.

Best real estate ETFs 2014 are:

1. iShares Residential Real Estate Capped ETF (REZ) – 24.27%
2. iShares Cohen & Steers REIT (ICF) – 22.24%
3. Schwab US REIT ETF (SCHH) – 21.1%
4. SPDR Dow Jones REIT ETF (RWR) – 20.93%
5. Vanguard REIT ETF (VNQ) - 20.77%
6. Wilshire US REIT ETF (WREI)
7. PowerShares Active US Real Estate ETF (PSR)
8. iShares Real Estate 50 (FTY)
9. First Trust S&P REIT ETF (FRI)
10. iShares US Real Estate ETF (IYR)

Top Stocks Week 34, 2014: Department Stores

Find top industry stocks of week 34 of 2014. Top stock industries are department stores, home improvement stores.

Best Stocks

This post will look into the top performing stocks, industry, and sector. The S&P 500 index has a weekly return of 1.75%. NASDAQ Composite has a weekly return of 1.65%. Dow Jones Industrials Average has a weekly return of 2.10%. The small cap (Russell 2000) has a return of 1.65%.

Best weekly performance of industry stocks of week 34, 2014 (August 18, 2014 – August 24, 2014) are:

1. Toy & Hobby Stores – 17.11%
2. Internet Service Providers – 11.53%
3. Department Stores – 8.31%
4. Home Improvement Stores – 7.61%
5. Electronics Stores
6. Property Management
7. Office Supplies

Top Performing Large Growth Mutual Funds 2014

Large growth mutual funds invest mainly in large U.S. companies with high growth potentials. These funds provide little yield or income.

Best Performing Funds

From this best performing funds list, you may find each individual fund review. You can find the fund performance, expense ratio, and yield or dividend from the table below. If you are interested in large growth ETFs, you can check my previous article. The list is sorted based on its year to date return up to August 25, 2014.

Top performing large growth mutual funds 2014 are:

1. Sterling Capital Special Opportunities Equity Fund (BOPAX)
2. Biondo Focus Fund (BFONX)
3. ClearBridge Aggressive Growth Fund (SHRAX)
4. USAA NASDAQ-100 Index Fund (USNQX)
5. Rydex Series Trust Nasdaq-100 Strategy Fund (RYOCX)
6. Vanguard PRIMECAP Fund (VPMCX)
7. Vanguard PRIMECAP Core Fund (VPCCX)
8. ProFunds NASDAQ-100 Fund (OTPIX)
9. Vanguard Capital Opportunity Fund (VHCAX)
10. PNC Large Cap Growth Fund (PEWAX)
11. Fidelity Independence Fund (FDFFX)
12. Manning & Napier Tax Managed Series Fund (EXTAX)

Best ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds)

MEPB Financial Exchange Traded Fund Review provides a diverse selection from variety of investment and financial analysis from more than 4,500 exchange traded funds. We review rankings from Morningstar, Lipper, Zacks, TheStreet.com, U.S. News, and Standard & Poor’s. You can learn from our methodology from variety of our previous articles.

Most Popular Exchange Traded Fund Rankings

Large Growth

• PowerShares QQQ ETF (QQQ) - Performance 1 Year: 25.47% Expense Ratio: 0.20%
• Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF (MGK) - Performance 1-Yr: 19.71% Expense Ratio: 0.11%
• Schwab US Large-Cap Growth ETF (SCHG) - Performance 1-Yr: 19.52% Expense Ratio: 0.07%
• Guggenheim S&P 500 Pure Growth ETF (RPG) - Performance 1-Yr: 23.89% Expense Ratio: 0.35%
• iShares Russell Top 200 Growth ETF (IWY) - Performance 1-Yr: 18.79% Expense Ratio: 0.20%
• SPDR S&P 500 Growth ETF (SPYG) - Performance 1-Yr: 18.29% Expense Ratio: 0.20%

Large Value

• SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA) - Performance 1-Yr: 18.05% Expense Ratio: 0.17%
• WisdomTree LargeCap Dividend ETF (DLN) - Performance 1-Yr: 14.01% Expense Ratio: 0.28%
• Schwab US Large-Cap Value ETF (SCHV) - Performance 1-Yr: 12.54% Expense Ratio: 0.07%

Prudential Day One Funds Review

You probably have seen Prudential Day One Funds advertisement from financial magazine or newspaper. This article will review these Prudential target date mutual funds.

Target Date Funds

If you have a 401k account, you might find target date mutual funds as part of the fund selection. These balanced funds are popular among any investors. You can also invest in individual retirement account (IRA), or regular investment account. If you invest in it, the fund will adjust its assets between stocks & bonds. These funds will adjust their assets based on your retirement year target.

Investment Ad:

A Target Date Fund That Understands Your Life Has No Target Date.
Prudential Day One Funds. 

DAY ONE 

Prudential Day One Funds and Prudential Day One IncomeFlex Target Funds are insurance company separate accounts issued by Prudential Retirement Insurance and Annuity Company.
Combined Strength in Asset Management and Retirement

• A top ten global asset manager

• Asset manager for 24 of the 25 largest retirement plans – both public and private

• 5th largest defined contribution, 7th largest defined benefit asset manager

Biggest Gain Stocks Week 33, 2014: Oil & Gas Pipelines

Find biggest gain stocks of week 33 of 2014. Top stock industries are oil & gas pipelines.

Best Stocks

This post will look into the top performing stocks, industry, and sector. The S&P 500 index has a weekly return of 1.28%. NASDAQ Composite has a weekly return of 2.15%. Dow Jones Industrials Average has a weekly return of 0.78%. The small cap (Russell 2000) has a return of 0.95%.

Best weekly performance of industry stocks of week 33, 2014 (August 11, 2014 – August 17, 2014) are:

1. Basic Materials Wholesale
2. Oil & Gas Pipelines
3. Internet Service Providers
4. Major Airlines
5. Biotechnology
6. Catalog & Mail Order Houses
7. Broadcasting - Radio
8. Semiconductor- Memory Chips