I agree with dick here. The only clear B&H asset in my opinion is a major index ETF which you purchase in some horrendous dislocation at perhaps a 50% discount to expected price. Congratulations, all 2009 SPY buyers at 67.10. That you can fire and forget. For every AAPL I can show you a ENRN, so only B&H stocks works only if you only pick winners. I believe the indexes work to pick winners and losers, and skew it in your advantage. But this is a CEF discussion.
For most of us, the future is optimistic, but uncertain. And I will perpetually maintain, cash is also an asset class. So taking gains when it seems rich, and rebuying when it seems cheap, is a reasonable strategy. Anticipating dividend cuts or fund mergers or activist shareholder actions, or FX realignments, federal reserve policy direction shifts or political regime changes all require adjustments.
So for CEF's you play the game and:
1. Try not to buy CEF IPO's (they are usually associated with haircuts)
2. Monitor not only the price of the cef but the nav (you can get on dedicated websites like cefconnect or try X+CEF ticker+X on yahoo finance or whatever you use.
3. Track discount/premium and yield.
4. Consider the UNII of a fund (less useful than it once was imho in a rising rate environment) and if given, the coverage ratios (PIMCO does these monthly)
5. Follow smart people like
@dickoncapecod who know what they are talking about.