Topic: How To Invest

Hi Pat: My first Inner Circle question is: what is your opinion on the following for steady income: ING Global Equity Dividend and Premium Opportunity Fund and PIMCO Global StocksPLUS & Income Fund? Thanks.

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ING Global Equity Dividend and Premium Opportunity Fund, $9.35, symbol IGD on New York (Shares outstanding: 97.5 million; Market cap: $911.6 million; www.ingfunds.com), is a closed-end fund that holds 130 global common stocks with a history of high dividend yields. The fund currently has 41.9% of its assets in U.S. stocks, with Japan next at 8.7%. Its top holdings are Metlife, Pfizer, Exxon Mobil, General Electric, Royal Dutch Shell, Eli Lilly & Co., Novartis AG, Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold, Microsoft and St. Jude Medical. ING Global Equity Dividend and Premium Opportunity Fund trades at a 4.3% discount to its net asset value and yields a high 10.8%. The fund’s MER is 1.18%. The fund’s portfolio does not pay enough dividend income to support that high dividend yield. To make up the difference, it raises its returns by writing call options on the majority of the portfolio’s securities. Selling call options generates an income stream for the fund. However, selling calls also…