Cohen and Steers CEF: The Lazy Man's Closed End Fund

I have recently added many closed end funds to my portfolio to take advantage of the above average discounts. But for those who are busy or time constrained, a reasonable purchase now is the Cohen and Steers Closed End Opportunity Fund (FOF).

I wrote about this fund back in February, but did not recommend it then because it sold at a premium to NAV.

But as of the close on December 7, FOF sold at a discount to NAV of 6.16%. And their top 10 holdings sell at a weighted average discount to NAV of 10.77%, so the combined discount is around 16.93%. FOF has been paying monthly distributions of $0.1175, or an annualized payout of 8.57%.

Here are the top 10 holdings of FOF as of September 30:
% Ticker Discount to NAV

• 4.0 CSQ -9.93%
• 3.5 ETW -10.74%
• 3.4 EOS -8.57%
• 3.3 ETY -10.80%
• 3.3 IIA -10.98%
• 3.2 AVK -12.13%
• 2.9 HTD -12.15%
• 2.5 NFJ -7.2%
• 2.5 EVT -11.65%
• 2.4 GLO -14.29

Weighted Average Discount= 10.77%

FOF is about one year old, so it is almost certainly being driven down by tax loss selling. It should experience a nice relief bounce in the first quarter of next year. Of course, FOF may go even lower if some investors wait until the last minute to take a tax loss, but the bulk of the tax loss selling should be over, since FOF just recently passed its one year anniversary date.

Full Disclosure: I am long FOF.