Before you deposit your cash into an investment trust, you need to know what you’re buying – and that involves understanding the jargon.
Morningstar closed-ended fund analysts prefer to measure an investment trust’s value based on a historic data so they can determine whether a trust is trading on a relative discount, rather than an absolute one.
The cash you invest in an investment trust buys shares that trade either at a discount to its net asset value, making it cheaper, or at a premium, which makes it more expensive.
Cheaper may sound attractive – but there can be a multitude of reasons why a trust is trading at a discount and as a result some may be best avoided.
In this video Jackie Beard, head of closed-end fund research highlights three investment trusts that are on an attractive discount, and explains why they are trading cheap.
Remember that discounts and premiums are not set in stone and can alter after you buy shares, affecting the value of your investment.