GhostYield
GhostYield is a yield sleeve research dashboard for comparing income-producing funds around an existing portfolio. It looks at yield source, NAV behavior, payout quality, data freshness, and sleeve risk — not just headline yield. Not a model portfolio and not a recommendation engine.
Current snapshot: v0.1 manual research data. Live feeds and automated source validation are not active yet.
Disclaimer: GhostYield does not recommend purchases or allocations. It helps you evaluate yield-producing sleeves by risk source, NAV behavior, distribution quality, and current conditions. High headline yield can come with credit risk, NAV erosion, leverage, option strategy drag, or return-of-capital mechanics. Research only. Not financial advice.
What GhostYield is — and is not
GhostYield is
- A yield sleeve research dashboard
- A way to compare income-producing funds by yield source, NAV behavior, payout quality, data quality, and sleeve risk
- A tool for asking better questions before adding yield around an existing portfolio
GhostYield is not
- A buy/sell recommendation engine
- A complete portfolio builder
- A promise that high yield equals high return
- A substitute for reading fund documents, filings, and tax details
Yield is not magic. It is usually compensation for some kind of risk — including credit, leverage, NAV erosion, option strategy drag, or return-of-capital mechanics.
Yield environment (illustrative)
Middle path: carry can still work, but do not assume last year’s winners repeat.
Inputs are static/manual for the current v0.1 snapshot (credit stress 52, rate pressure 48, vol 44).
Sleeve categories
Cash / T-Bill Yield
Treasury and cash-like sleeves. Low credit drama, but reinvestment and real-return risk still exist.
Credit Income
Corporate loans, high yield, CLO tranches, and similar. Yield often rises when spreads widen — you are paid to hold default and downgrade risk.
Preferred Income
Hybrid securities — higher yields than many bonds, but rate sensitivity and issuer credit still matter. Resets and call features add complexity.
CEF Credit
Closed-end credit funds with structural leverage. NAV quotes, premiums/discounts, and distribution tax character — including return of capital — matter as much as coupons.
Opportunistic / Special Situations Income
Event-driven, activism-adjacent, or opportunistic credit sleeves — often idiosyncratic. Liquidity, filings, and strategy drift deserve extra skepticism alongside headline yield.
BDC Income
Business development companies lend to private middle-market firms. NAV can swing with credit marks; distributions may include volatile components.
Midstream Income
Energy infrastructure and pipeline-style cash flows. Yield can look rich when commodity volatility rises; equity, balance-sheet, and regulatory risk remain.
Natural Resources Income
Oil, gas, and resource-linked equities or funds. Dividends track commodity cycles and corporate policy — not the same risk profile as plain midstream fee streams.
Option Income
Covered-call and similar strategies trade upside for premium. Distribution stability can look good until the underlying trend shifts.
Crypto Yield
Coming soon
Staking, lending, and tokenized yield carry protocol, custody, and gap-risk concerns. GhostYield will add this sleeve when there is a defensible static frame — not yet.
Candidate screener (v0.1 manual research snapshot)
Screener guide: Yield uses the best available sourced metric on each row: current yield, then distribution rate, then SEC yield. Payout reflects distribution quality from the snapshot. Data QA reflects source-data freshness and completeness — not investment risk (gaps don't automatically mean a bad fund; fresh doesn't automatically mean safe). Risk Score is 0–100 where higher is riskier (sleeve and structure risk). Fit Score is 0–100 where higher is a cleaner fit as a yield sleeve. Hover column headers or scores for band definitions.
Scroll sideways to see all columns.
| Ticker | Income sleeve | Yield | NAV 1Y | Prem/disc | Payout | Data QA | Risk Score | Fit Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SGOV | Cash / T-Bill Yield | 3.5%(SEC) | 4.1% | 0.0% | Strong | Fresh Data | 4Low | 100Strong |
| HYG | Credit Income | 6.4%(SEC) | 6.9% | -0.1% | Mixed | Data Caution | 38Mod. | 96Strong |
| BKLN | Credit Income | — | — | — | Mixed | Data Gaps | 64Elev. | 74Good |
| JAAA | Credit Income | 5.3%(SEC) | 6.0% | — | Mixed | Data Gaps | 58Elev. | 90Strong |
| ARDC | CEF Credit | 10.5%(Dist. rate) | — | -5.9% | Uncertain | Fresh Data | 90Extr. | 68Watch |
| PFF | Preferred Income | 6.3%(SEC) | 4.6% | -0.1% | Mixed | Data Caution | 39Mod. | 94Strong |
| BIZD | BDC Income | — | — | — | Mixed | Data Gaps | 71High | 72Good |
| ARCC | BDC Income | — | — | — | Strong | Stale Data | 48Mod. | 86Strong |
| BXSL | BDC Income | 11.4%(Dist./NAV sh) | — | — | Strong | Stale Data | 50Elev. | 85Strong |
| KIO | CEF Credit | 13.3%(Current) | — | -7.2% | Weak | Stale Data | 100Extr. | 60Watch |
| EMO | Midstream Income | 8.7%(Dist. rate) | — | -12.4% | Mixed | Fresh Data | 54Elev. | 89Strong |
| TYG | Midstream Income | 11.7%(Dist. rate) | — | 0.4% | Mixed | Fresh Data | 49Mod. | 82Good |
| SPE | Special Situations | 9.0%(Dist. rate) | — | -10.4% | Uncertain | Fresh Data | 69Elev. | 83Good |
| BRW | Opportunistic Credit | 14.8%(Dist. rate) | — | -10.1% | Weak | Fresh Data | 72High | 76Good |
| PEO | Natural Resources Income | 8.2%(Dist. rate) | — | -11.0% | Mixed | Fresh Data | 45Mod. | 97Strong |
| NML | Midstream Income | 8.4%(Dist. rate) | — | -12.3% | Weak | Fresh Data | 56Elev. | 84Good |
| SRV | Midstream Income | 11.3%(Dist. rate) | — | -3.0% | Mixed | Fresh Data | 51Elev. | 82Good |
| KYN | Midstream Income | 7.4%(Dist. rate) | — | -14.3% | Mixed | Fresh Data | 54Elev. | 89Strong |
| JEPI | Option Income | 8.4%(Dist. rate) | 8.0% | — | Strong | Data Gaps | 56Elev. | 100Strong |
| JEPQ | Option Income | 11.2%(Dist. rate) | 19.8% | — | Mixed | Data Gaps | 68Elev. | 94Strong |
Overview
SGOV — iShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF
Risk Score 4 (Low) — sleeve / investment risk in this model (not the same as Data QA on the snapshot).
Fit Score: 100 (Strong Fit)
Score drivers
These drivers explain the current GhostYield model score. They are not buy/sell signals.
Risk drivers
No extra drivers beyond the overall model blend for this row.
Fit drivers
Strong payout quality in the snapshot boosts modeled fit.
Strong one-year NAV trend supports fit in the model.
Cash-like sleeves score as straightforward ballast in the model.
High confidence on the cited snapshot improves fit in the model.
Pricing / NAV
Pricing
NAV performance (illustr.)
Market performance (illustr.)
Yield & distributions
Yield (screener column)
The table “Yield” column uses SEC yield as a fallback (3.55%), since current yield and distribution rate are not set.
Distributions (illustr.)
Source & data quality
Lineage
Risks / use case
Main risks
- Reinvestment if rates fall
- Not a credit hedge in a crisis
Best use
Parking cash with minimal duration.
Avoid if
You need equity-like upside.
Source & data quality
Data quality reflects how complete and fresh the sourced snapshot is. It is not an investment-risk rating. Missing data does not automatically mean a bad fund; fresh data does not automatically mean a safe fund.
Reference as of (static): 2026-05-08
- Latest NAV as-of (sample universe)
- 2026-05-08
- Latest distribution as-of (sample universe)
- 2026-05-08
- Selected — NAV as-of
- 2026-05-08
- Selected — distribution as-of
- 2026-05-07
- Selected — confidence
- high
- Selected — snapshot quality status
- Fresh Data
Top sample data issues
- Missing distribution source fields (date, rate, or amount) on static row.
- Missing NAV for an ETF/CEF-style wrapper in the static row.
- NAV / market data is older than 5 trading days (sample dates).
Manual research snapshot (v0.1) in data/ghostyield/candidates.manual.json. Some rows cite CEF Connect as a secondary aggregation source (see per-row sourceLabel), not live sponsor feeds. Missing numerics were not verified from the cited source. No automated source validation. For sourcing rules and the CEF caveat in full, see Methodology & source data at the bottom of this page. For research / UI only—not tax or trade advice.
Methodology & source data (v0.1)
How GhostYield scores yield sleeves →Risk Score is GhostYield's sleeve / investment risk estimate (structure, leverage, distribution stress signals, etc.). Data QA (the Source & data quality column and badges) is only about how complete and fresh the manual snapshot is for that row. Read them together — they answer different questions — and do not treat one as a substitute for the other.
This v0.1 snapshot uses manually maintained JSON rows — not live pricing or feeds. Some values were sourced from sponsor pages, fact sheets, SEC filings, CEF Connect summaries, or fund documents. Fields are filled only when a number can be tied to a cited source; otherwise they stay null. Unverified fields remain null.
Selected closed-end and listed BDC snapshots may also store optional structured cefMetrics / bdcMetrics blocks so leverage, coverage, non-accruals, and NAV-relative dividend context do not have to live only in generic yield-oriented columns.
Some closed-end rows cite CEF Connect (Nuveen / Morningstar-style summaries) as an interim secondary source for figures — always read each row's sourceLabel and sourceUrl for what was actually used, not an assumed sponsor-primary chain. No automated source validation.
In the screener, Data QA (source snapshot completeness) is labeled separately from Risk Score (investment / sleeve risk). Rows in data/ghostyield/candidates.manual.json carry sourceUrl, sourceLabel, and lineage as-of fields — scoring in lib/ghostyield/scoring.ts, freshness in lib/ghostyield/dataFreshness.ts. The screener Yield column prefers current yield, then distribution rate, then SEC yield (see detail panel).