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We compare reactions in the prices and trading patterns of common stocks and closed-end funds (CEFs), securities with substantially different investor clienteles, to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. When the market reopened 6 days later, retail investors sold and there were sharp price declines, even in assets with net institutional buying. In the subsequent 2 weeks, price reversals were substantially security specific and thus not simply due to improved systematic sentiment. Consistent with microstructure theory, comparisons between CEFs and common stocks show the speed of these reversals depended significantly on the relative quality and availability of information about fundamental values.

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We use the horrific events of September 11, 2001 ("nine-eleven") as a natural test of the hypothesis that closed-end mutual fund discounts from fund net asset values reflect small investor sentiment. Because nine-eleven was a sudden, unforeseen, and significantly negative and exogenous shock to the world, the capital markets, and investor sentiment, our test avoids many of the problems of extant studies. Discounts worsened dramatically following the event, and then recovered alongside the broader market. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that discounts reflect the sentiment of small investors, who took their cues from the broader market's overall movement.We thank Steve Ferris, the editor, and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments. We also thank Hua (Allen) Song for helpful research assistance, and Larry Fauver and Andrea Heuson for helpful comments. 515 516 T. R. Burch et al./The Financial Review 38 (2003) [515][516][517][518][519][520][521][522][523][524][525][526][527][528][529]