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Ignore The Volatility, Buy Good Businesses
Porter's Journal Issue #90, Volume #2
Porter Stansberry
August 05, 2025
There Is No Sure Thing In Investing
This is Porter’s Daily Journal, a free e-letter from Porter & Co. that provides unfiltered insights on markets, the economy, and life to help readers become better investors. It includes weekday editions and two weekend editions… and is free to all subscribers.
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Table of Contents
Editor’s note: Today, Porter turns the Journal over to Distressed Investing senior analyst Marty Fridson.
Marty has a long background in trading, investing, and finance… Over a 25-year span with Wall Street firms including Salomon Brothers, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch, he became known for his innovative work in credit analysis and investment strategy.
In today’s Journal, Marty warns readers about being sucked into investments that seem like a sure thing… like a closed-end fund trading at a huge discount to its net asset value.
Marty takes it from here…
“This one’s a no-brainer.”
When talking about investment ideas, this phrase refers to someone who has no brain as opposed to an idea that’s an obvious winner.
Like people who assume that when a closed-end fund (“CEF”) is priced at a discount to its net asset value (“NAV”) – the value of the fund’s assets minus the value of its liabilities – it’s some kind of an anomaly that points to easy money.
There’s no such thing as a sure thing in investing… Let me explain.
Like its cousin the open-end mutual fund, a closed-end fund owns an underlying portfolio of stocks, bonds, or some other instrument. The difference is this: When you buy or sell a share of an open-end fund, the transaction price always equals the market value per share of the underlying portfolio. In contrast, CEF shares can trade at a discount or a premium to its NAV.