When it falls outside that normal range, then you need to know why. The nature of the fund is that it has a fixed capital base. Generally speaking, the fund can only grow through the expertise, or good luck, of the manager. That also means there isn't much money for advertising the fund. Jack Perry of Raymond James says that makes CEFs a good bargain for investors.
Clients buy mutual funds because of marketing.
Perry also says many financial advisers opt not to sell CEFs because the commissions are usually smaller than with open-ended funds. In fact, Perry, who's based in Indianapolis, says investors may have to do a little searching to find an adviser who's well versed in CEFs. It's a niche. A couple months ago, for the five states surrounding Indiana, there were about 10 or 11 financial advisers listed on the Closed-end Fund Association Web site. If you have a balanced portfolio of mutual funds, stocks, bonds and cash, you may want to consider adding closed-end funds to the mix.