Like Discounts? Check Out Closed-End Funds
The stock market has its own discount store, and analysts say prices have rarely been cheaper.</br></br>The discounts can be found among closed-end funds, those peculiar mutual funds that trade on the stock exchange. You think stocks and bonds look attractive? Closed-end funds offer the chance to buy into these markets -- at marked down prices.</br></br>"There are quite remarkable values right now," says George Foot, managing partner of New York's Newgate Management Associates. "This is the time when you should step up to the table and enjoy the feast."</br></br>How do closed-end funds differ from regular mutual funds? If you trade a regular fund, you simply buy or sell shares from the fund involved. The only price you need worry about is the fund's net asset value, which is the value of the fund's portfolio holdings expressed on a per-share basis.</br></br>But with closed-end funds, you also have to keep tabs on a fund's publicly traded shares. Unlike regular mutual funds, closed-end funds issue only a limited number of shares. The fund is then closed, and its shares are listed on the stock market.