Price return, NAV return and total return

A CEF has two prices — the market price and the NAV — and each can be measured with or without distributions. That gives four series:

• Market price return: change in the share price only.
• Market price total return: price change plus distributions reinvested at the market price.
• NAV return: change in NAV only.
• NAV total return: NAV change plus distributions reinvested at NAV — the closest measure of what the manager achieved.

Calling a simple price change “total return” is a common error and understates the result of any fund that pays material distributions. Comparing a fund's NAV total return with a benchmark's price return is the same error in reverse.

Our convention

Distributions are reinvested at the series value on the ex-date (the first available observation on or after it). Periods up to one year are cumulative; longer periods are annualised. Returns are computed from unadjusted price and NAV series plus the distribution history — never from a series that already embeds distributions, which would count them twice. Performance is always shown “through” a date.