Your Guide To Closed End Funds

You can build a great investment portfolio with mutual funds. But you may be able to build an even better one if you include closed-end funds. Many of these funds, which invest like mutual funds but whose shares are bought and sold like stock, earn returns that beat those logged by their mutual-fund cousins.

To help identify these opportunities, we bring you BUSINESS WEEK's Mutual Fund Scoreboard for closed-end funds. How well the fund's portfolio performed--the net asset value (NAV) return--and how the fund shares fared are outlined. Because prices of these shares are determined in the stock market, they rarely trade at NAV, and quite often trade at a discount. We also rate funds on their three-year risk-adjusted portfolio returns. This year, 17 funds earned three upward-pointing arrows, the highest rating. The ratings and Scoreboard data are prepared by Morningstar Inc.