Market for Bootleg Sequoia Shares Wanes as Fund Slumps

(SEQUX Quote)Sequoia may no longer be the best-selling fund investors aren't allowed to buy.

The no-load fund has been closed to new investors since December 1982. But its years of steady, solid performance have motivated many crafty investors to open an account by paying a current shareholder a hefty premium for a single share.

A minus 15.1% return for the past 12 months has tarnished the fund's once-impeccable performance record, though. Now the gray market, in which hard-to-get shares of the fund traded for as much as seven times their nominal value, appears to be drying up. ...