Investing can be exciting, but most of the time, the real winners are more staid if not outright boring. After all, Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) selling electric cars is fun. Bonds are for widows and orphans (or so the conventional wisdom goes).#-ad_banner-#

If you like making money, whether in the form of capital gains or dividends, then I have a boring stock for you. Actually, it is a closed-end fund, but it pays a nice dividend and just broke out from a technical basing pattern.

The Nuveen Quality Preferred Income Fund (NYSE: JTP) invests primarily in preferred stocks, and it has most of the characteristics I like to see in a stock or fund.

No doubt, income-producing investments such as Treasury bonds and utility stocks were out of favor for much of the past year. Between May and August of last year, JTP shed more than 20%.

But since August, trading has taken place in a range. Chart watchers call that a base, and the longer it lasts, the longer the rally should last if and when it finally breaks out.

That breakout happened in JTP earlier this week and on nice volume. The past two days served to work off the slightly extended move and test the breakout, giving us a second chance to buy with lower risk.

We will know very quickly if the trade is not working out and can stop out for minimal loss. However, if the trade works, a steady rise over the next few weeks to roughly $8.28 is likely. This target is found by adding the height of the trading range to the breakout point, and it is a technique for setting objectives that I find quite reliable.

A 6% gain might not sound like much, but for bondlike instruments it is not bad. And we have not even considered the 8% dividend yield.

The only caution is that the fund went ex-dividend last week, so in order to get paid a dividend, we would have to ride this trade out through April.

Action to Take –>

— Buy JTP at the market price
— Set stop-loss at $7.70
— Set initial price target at $8.28 for a potential 6% gain in 12 weeks

This article originally appeared on ProfitableTrading.com:
Breakout Says This Boring, Little Income Fund is an Immediate ‘Buy’

P.S. By using a similar options strategy, my colleague Amber Hestla is generating payments of $1,047, $2,435 and $3,410 (and sometimes more) from nearly any stock — including ones you already own. This free report explains everything, including names and tickers.