The correct answer is      (E.)  11

That's right: the number of heavily discounted closed-end funds shrank dramatically in just 12 short days.

What happened? Well, there's no need to remind you that stocks have been clobbered over the past few months. Naturally, this has made life particularly tough on closed-end funds. As of October 10, 2008, 636 out of 654 available closed-end funds could be bought below NAV and investors had a veritable buffet of more than 300 funds showing discounts of -30% or greater.

Many investors wisely took advantage of the situation, and discounts have been quickly falling back in line. Just 12 days later, only 11 funds were trading at discounts of -30% or greater, and the median discount slipped from -29.6% to -13.7%.

As confidence in the market returns, these unprecedented discounts should continue to shrink -- meaning that time is running out for investors to snap up what may be once-in-a-lifetime deals. Even a discount of -15% (of which more than 250 funds boast) can make a big impact on your portfolio. Of course, the market could retreat again. But it's hard to imagine that these discounts will last long.

Fortunately, there are still some highly attractive bargains out there, and StreetAuthority editor Nathan Slaughter has provided a snapshot of some of the most promising closed-end funds in the latest issue of The ETF Authority newsletter. These funds are trading at discounts ranging from -9.0% to over -24.0% -- all well above their three-year average discounts. Nathan also takes an in-depth look at two highly discounted funds that, in a market rebound, could put rocket fuel in your portfolio. To learn the names of these funds, and to learn more about The ETF Authority, please visit this link.