Net Asset Value

Net Asset Value in a mutual fund seems to annoy a large number of Series 7 candidates, so let's take a closer look. Here is a rather difficult practice question on the concept:

The Pacesetter Equity Income Fund holds large positions in exactly 10 common stock issues. This week 5 of the holdings distributed dividend payments of $10,000 each. Therefore, which of the following statements is true?
a. the NAV remains unchanged if proportionally more purchase orders come in versus redemptions
b. the NAV remains unchanged due to dividend distributions
c. the NAV will rise unless market values decline by more than the dividends distributed
d. the NAV remains unchanged unless redemptions outweigh purchase orders for the fund shares

EXPLANATION: NAV is figured before anybody buys or sells shares of the fund on a particular trading day. The buyers are not bidding competitively on a fixed number of shares--the fund creates new shares for the buyers and converts the sellers' shares to an equal amount of cash. Purchases and redemptions have no effect whatsoever on NAV. On the other hand, if $50,000 of cash money comes into the mutual fund portfolio, that makes the assets of the fund rise. The only way the NAV could go down that day is if the market values of the securities dropped by more than $50,000.



ANSWER: c