Because of the stock market turmoil and a wave of tax-loss selling, closed-end funds are selling at highly attractive discounts of 15% or more, according to The Wall Street Journal.
“This is one of the best year-end buying opportunities I’ve seen in a decade,” said Thomas J. Herzfeld, an investment adviser who specializes in closed-end funds. “We’re seeing some of the widest discounts in years.”
The tax-loss selling has been extremely high, agreed Larry Glazer, vice president and portfolio manager at Mayflower Advisors. “That’s why the closed-end discounts are so wide.” And although he expects the tax-loss selling to end next month and the “tax bounce” to end then, he is quick to add that significant discounts could still persist for a number of years.
