Closed-end funds represent one of the best investment opportunities in the market today. There is a place in every balanced portfolio for a diversified equity closed-end fund like Adams Express and a specialized sector closed-end fund like Petroleum & Resources. Every prudent investor should give serious consideration to adding them to his or her investment portfolio. Here is some information that may assist you in your consideration.
What is a Closed-end Fund?
A closed-end fund (“CEF”) is a professionally managed portfolio of securities that operates like a typical corporation. Just like an open-end fund (which is more commonly known as a mutual fund), the CEF’s assets are the portfolio of stocks and other securities that it owns and manages.
When a CEF is founded, it has an initial public offering and a fixed number of shares are issued, just like any other public company. Those shares then trade on a stock exchange and new investors in the fund obtain their shares by buying them from existing investors who are looking to sell, also just like any other public company. A mutual fund, by contrast, issues an unlimited number of shares and issues new shares to each new investor. Investors who desire to sell their shares actually have their shares “redeemed” by the mutual fund. Shares of Adams Express and Petroleum & Resources trade on the New York Stock Exchange.
The price of a share of the CEF is set by the market and may or may not correspond to the net asset value of the fund’s portfolio (“NAV”). This can result in the CEF’s stock price trading at a discount from or premium to the NAV.