How the market's recent rally created 'a good widening' of closed-end discounts

Discount-capture investor Rob Shaker, Portfolio Manager at Shaker Financial Services, says that while closed-end fund discounts have widened through a strong season of earnings and a market returning to flirt with new highs, much of that action has been "good widenings," where a fund's net asset value goes up more than the price of the closed-end fund itself. With the market "snapping around" with heightened volatility, Shaker says that the indexes have been pulling up faster than closed-end funds can move, creating attractive buying opportunities. While liking that potential for gains, Shaker says that closed-end funds generally "have been pretty laid back," without much fear but also without much optimism, even as the market has resumed its climb higher.