Ok–it has been a week or so in which I have been fixated on the banking issues and I am tiring of it. I hold a number of regional and community bank preferreds–all in modest position sizes. I have Customers Bancorp (CUBI) preferreds F (CUBI-F) and their debt issue (CUBB). I also have some Merchants Bancorp (MBIN) preferred (MBINO) and Bridgewater Bank preferred (BWBBP) and even in modest sizes they have been painful.
I am full to the gills in CDs and treasury notes and with rates now coming off I am hesitant to add to these areas–of course we all know this could change with further banking and economic news in the weeks ahead.
Its time to start focusing elsewhere. For me that is in the utilities and in the closed end fund (CEF) preferreds (I am not interested now in any of the specialty finance CEF preferreds–i.e. Oxford Lane, Eagle Point etc) . I hold positions in many, many issues in these segments and I see they are getting hammered today (the utilities in particular), but certainly they have outperformed the banking issues by a long way. In addition I may even add a REIT position or two–not sure.
Over the course of the next week or two I will post what I own and any nibbles I make during this time. I likely will add to some of my current positions, but I certainly will start some positions which are new to me.
Here is the master listing of utility preferreds and baby bonds. Here is the listing of CEF preferreds.