“With a goal of trying not to lose capital in 2022, this has been a very good test to try not to put us in a position where we’ve got to dig out of a hole, which has been the biggest challenge for most people this year.”
Borisoff also focuses on some unique preferred share issues as a small part of portfolios. In the past, he’s also taken advantage of closed end funds that are trading on the market at a discount to net asset value, and then he’s redeemed them at 100% of net asset value on the annual redemption date.
“That’s something that you can only do from time to time, and we haven’t done it recently. It just depends on the fund out there and what the terms are,” he said. “A lot of these things are not traditionally done by large managers because they ‘re dealing with too much money.”
It’s a speciality niche that he’s enjoyed researching, even writing a white paper on it as he’s seen how well it’s endured stress tests like 2008 and again this year. But, he’s not recommending that it’s something that anyone can try since it requires a lot of research.
“Most of my clients are trying to avoid market stress and volatility as much as they can,” said Borisoff. ”Over the years, we’ve become more and more focused on trying to basically reduce client anxiety levels and protect their capital, which this year was probably the biggest test of that so far.
