Introduction: The changing landscape of investing

Why is it so little is known about investment trusts? After all, they have been around for a very long time – many trace their ancestry back to the nineteenth century. Some of them are very large with market capitalisations of around £2,000 million – not easy to miss! Sections of the financial press often talk about the merits of investment trusts, including better performance and cheaper fees when compared with the unit trusts that dominate the market. And yet, the typical investor is unaware of them – the first chapter will therefore explain what investment trusts are.

Most of us love a bargain. So why have we been over-paying for our investments? Why is it that, in the past 10 years alone, ...

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