Who buys back funds?

grey_gym_sock

funds can impose restrictions on selling units, but this generally only happens if they can't sell their investments immediately.

it's happened for some funds which invest directly in property - not surprising, as property takes much longer to sell than shares.

it can also happen if they cannot repatriate their money from overseas investments due to capital controls. though that is unlikely to be an issue, at least in major markets, nowadays.

it could clearly happen if stock market trading were suspended for any reason.

if the fund can sell its investments immediately, but at very low prices, then it should only be the investors who sell their units who lose out. i.e. if 5% of units in a fund are sold (in a panic), then 5% of the investments are sold (at knock-down prices), and the sellers get the proceeds of the fire sale; the remaining 95% of the units should still have the same assets per unit, so they are placed correctly to benefit from any recovery. i said "should", because it does depend on precisely how the unit price for the sellers is calculated, which is way beyond what i know.