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Investor Sentiment and the Closed‐End Fund Puzzle
Author(s) -
LEE CHARLES M. C.,
SHLEIFER ANDREI,
THALER RICHARD H.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
the journal of finance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 18.151
H-Index - 299
eISSN - 1540-6261
pISSN - 0022-1082
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-6261.1991.tb03746.x
Subject(s) - closed end fund , business , proposition , open end fund , monetary economics , institutional investor , financial economics , finance , economics , corporate governance , market liquidity , philosophy , epistemology
This paper examines the proposition that fluctuations in discounts of closed‐end funds are driven by changes in individual investor sentiment. The theory implies that discounts on various funds move together, that new funds get started when seasoned funds sell at a premium or a small discount, and that discounts are correlated with prices of other securities affected by the same investor sentiment. The evidence supports these predictions. In particular, we find that both closed‐end funds and small stocks tend to be held by individual investors, and that the discounts on closed‐end funds narrow when small stocks do well.