there are three funds hiding in plain sight that do something everyone thinks is impossible pay huge dividends—with yields up to 72—and deliver outsized 24 total returns too i know i don’t have to tell you what an inflationfighting weapon a return like that would be these days these are no less than the world’s three bestperforming closedend funds cefs over the long term and today we’re going to rank them from third to first to see if any or all of them have a place in our investment portfolios the least impressive cef on the list the columbia seligman premium technology growth fund stk has “only” a 237 annualized return based on its market price over the last five years with a dividend that’s held steady throughout that time and yields 51 today meantime stk’s underlying portfolio or net asset value nav has ballooned the stellar performance of stk’s holdings is due to the fact that they’re a mix of smaller tech companies like lam research lrcx teradyne ter and synpatics syna combined with big cashrich tech stalwarts like apple aapl alphabet googl and microsoft msft  thanks to this portfolio investors who put 100000 in stk in late 2016 are now sitting on 216300 in profits nearly double what the sp 500 has delivered and its dividend is four times greater than the sp 500 average too stk has held a consistent dividend over the long haul while the liberty allstar growth fund asg has increased payouts over the last decade which is why it now yields an impressive 72 and that huge payout is sustainable—the fund’s highoctane portfolio has backed it up with an incredible fiveyear run posting a total nav return of 1983 in that time meantime asg’s market price has outrun its nav with a 2471 return in other words asg investors who bought in five years ago have now banked a 247100 profit for every 100k invested similar to stk asg focuses on companies that are seeing soaring revenue but unlike stk asg doesn’t stick just to tech instead aiming for growth stocks across sectors that’s why asg holds stocks as different as signature bank sbny education services firm chegg chgg and insurer unitedhealth group unh the result has been a massive marketbeating return and a high income stream that keeps on rising the cef with the alltime best market performance going by its market price is also our most appealing buy of this trio today the blackrock science and technology trust bst with a 31 annualized return over the last five years this relatively new launched in 2014 fund has stayed under the radar for many investors for those in the know however a 100k investment has returned 302400 in profits in the last halfdecade with bst’s payouts steadily increasing in the last few years along with its ballooning portfolio all of this makes for a great cef and that’s why bst should be on the top of your “buy now” list but there’s another reason this fund is a great deal unlike asg and stk which trade for premiums to nav—cefspeak for saying these funds trade above what their portfolios are actually worth—bst trades for less than its portfolio’s real value right now bst’s market price is 47 below nav meaning you get its holdings which include amazoncom amzn paypal pypl and alphabet googl as well as a few privateequity firms blackrock has access to but your average investor doesn’t for less than these companies’ real market value for that reason bst is our no 1 pick of these three now—especially since it will also give you a 55 income stream that’s likely to keep rising while you hold it michael foster is the lead research analyst for contrarian outlook for more great income ideas click here for our latest report “indestructible income 5 bargain funds with safe 73 dividends”