PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Urbi Garay AU - Philip Russel TI - The Closed–End Fund Puzzle AID - 10.3905/jai.1999.318907 DP - 1999 Dec 31 TA - The Journal of Alternative Investments PG - 23--44 VI - 2 IP - 3 4099 - https://pm-research.com/content/2/3/23.short 4100 - https://pm-research.com/content/2/3/23.full AB - Academic research has focused specifically on the enigmatic behavior of their discounts, known in the literature as the closed-end discount puzzle. The extant evidence suggests that closed-end funds are issued at a premia with respect to their net asset value, that discounts fluctuate widely over time and also across funds, and that closed-end fund prices converge to their net asset values when they are either liquidated or open-ended. Some of the theories that have been advanced attempting to explain the puzzle are efficient market based explanations and the Investor Sentiment Hypothesis. None of the theories, either individually or collectively, provide a sufficient explanation for the pricing of closed-end funds and, therefore, the enigma continues.