Subscribe to a chart service to time your buy and sell of closed end funds

Since a closed-end fund behaves like a stock, you need to develop a strategy of when to buy and sell. One of the best methods is to subscribe to a chart service. You can view the charts in several forms, including bar, candlestick, and point and figure. There are also many technical analysis indicators, such as stochastic oscillators and moving averages. The key is to use a few of these indicators since they basically do the same thing.

I recommend: StockCharts allows you to create your criteria for studying, including time period, volume, and technical indicators; you will find closed-end fund analysis from John Murphy, one of the leading technical analysts in the U.S., very useful. You can get some charts for free, but you’ll want to subscribe to this service. You can let eSignal’s sophisticated chart services show you when to buy or sell closed-end bond funds. Consider eSignal for real-time data.

Buy and sell closed end fund based on analysts' recommendations

Perhaps you may not want to do all of the research on your own. Instead, you want to base your investment on somebody's recommendations. Analysts base their picks on various data, such as the price per earnings or annual performance.

I recommend: Morningstar offers comprehensive closed-end fund analysis, such as closed-end bond funds. You’ll need to be a Premium member to take advantage of its buy and sell recommendations. Morningstar will give you useful information on closed end equity funds. The Motley Fool also provides picks on closed-end mutual funds. The website not only gives you good closed-end funds information, but it shows you how they’ve beaten the S&P.

Subscribe to online newspaper publications to get closed fund information

You can access the same information on closed end funds research that analysts access. In essence, you can be your own analyst. However, you'll need to know and understand the terminology. These publications have sections that will explain unfamiliar terms to you. They even have examples so you can understand the terms better.

I recommend: The Wall Street Journal contains a section on closed end funds; you can do a closed-funds search based on the category. To get a more specialized closed-funds search, click on the fund to get crucial information, including its dividend yield or shares outstanding. Investor’s Business Daily features a short list of closed end fund information on every Tuesday, particularly on equity funds.