A company quoted on the London Stock Exchange that invests its shareholders funds in the shares of other companies, known as closed-end publicly quoted funds in the US. They enable private investors with limited funds to get diversified share ownership without incurring heavy dealing costs and enable investors to get exposure to markets that they may not be able to reach themselves (e.g. to emerging countries). Unlike unit trusts, investment trusts are closed end funds. That is, there is a fixed number of shares in circulation, and the price of those shares is determined like other quoted shares - by supply and demand.