Stockchase Opinions

Larry Berman CFA, CMT, CTA Harvest Premium Yield Treasury ETF HPYT-T PARTIAL BUY Jan 29, 2024

Covered call bond. Lots of volatility creates excellent yields. Good for income seekers if small portion (diversified). Would recommend for small portion of portfolio. 

$11.810

Stock price when the opinion was issued

E.T.F.'s
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RISKY

Unsure on direction of Bond yields. If comfortable with 5% yields, a good time to buy. Depends on investor requirements. Good for risk adverse investors. 

RISKY

Extracting yield from volatility in markets. Difficult to judge outcome of stock for average investor. Would recommend small amount in portfolio for average investor. Not good for retirees. 

HOLD

Portfolio of US treasury bonds. Selling covered calls provides income, but limits upside. Good for dividend investors. MER is a little higher than would prefer. Available in USD version. 

WAIT

Long-dated (20-30 years) bond fund, while using leverage and covered call strategies to enhance income. Doesn't perform well when interest rates go up. Must be confident that rate cuts are coming and pretty aggressively to want to own this. That was supposed to be the case, but now it seems that rate cuts will be pushed back a bit.

Won't start to move until yields start to move and rates start to get cut.

DON'T BUY
17%, too good to be true?

Long US treasuries and writes covered calls to generate income. If you look at the chart, while you've been making 17% in yield, you've lost the equivalent in price terms. You must look at total return. Those that focus on the yield and don't understand the return are doomed to risk. Volatile.

Instead, just hold TLT or ZTL -- US bonds at the long end of the treasury curve -- and don't worry about the yield so much.

COMMENT

A covered call on T-bills. This distribution of 17.21% is suspiciously too high. A few things to consider: you cover-write the bonds here, so you won't capture a bounce in bond prices.

BUY

Wrapper for various covered call ETFs. Gives you more diversification across a number of sectors, while utilizing a covered call strategy for income on 1/3 to 1/2 of the portfolio. He likes that part of the portfolio can breathe to enjoy any upside. Except for tech, most of the other sectors covered are risk-averse.