Investing in Bonds

Quote from Don87109:

I think I know what you are talking about, but I don't know what you mean by a "B label bond". Perhaps you are talking about a credit rating. Anyway it might be a good deal, but I'm more comfortable with listed and secured bonds...
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Don,
Yes, I meant B-level rating (could be BB.) For the past couple of years I have been putting my extra cash in those notes (offered to me through my IB account) and it's pretty easy to sign up and a good deal rate-wise. However, after what happened with Refco, I have pulled most of the money in a taxable money-market fund that yields a lot less.

Excuse the simple question, but how could I go about finding bonds like the one you mention from Ford? Is there a website or two that could help me in this process or a page in the IB website? Any help would be welcome. TIA.
 
Quote from Yannis:

Don,
Yes, I meant B-level rating (could be BB.) For the past couple of years I have been putting my extra cash in those notes (offered to me through my IB account) and it's pretty easy to sign up and a good deal rate-wise. However, after what happened with Refco, I have pulled most of the money in a taxable money-market fund that yields a lot less.

Excuse the simple question, but how could I go about finding bonds like the one you mention from Ford? Is there a website or two that could help me in this process or a page in the IB website? Any help would be welcome. TIA.
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IB's bond capability is pretty lame. I don't even think they have a screener, at least I could not find one, and they only trade corporate bonds no treasuries, etc.

Try Fidelity, investinginbonds.com, or even Yahoo for bond screeners. Ultimately your broker is probably the best source except maybe for IB.

For some reason these different sites don't always show the same bond listings. I'm not sure why. I kinda new at this bond stuff myself.

Don
 
IB's bond capability is pretty lame.
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with all due respect Don, i would disagree with you here. list of bonds are available on IB website, you can get any data about issue from IB TWS including REAL TIME quotes. try to get it from full service broker.
some firms charge as much as $5 per request for current bond price. with little programming knowledge you can pull out data from IB TWS via API and do with it whatever you want. any scanner, any screener is very easy to create using for example excel or ms access. plus-they do have realtime scanner for bonds. as far as i know-there is no other firm offer all this stuff + $5 commission on top of it.:D
 
Quote from Bob111:

with all due respect Don, i would disagree with you here. list of bonds are available on IB website, you can get any data about issue from IB TWS including REAL TIME quotes. try to get it from full service broker.
some firms charge as much as $5 per request for current bond price. with little programming knowledge you can pull out data from IB TWS via API and do with it whatever you want. any scanner, any screener is very easy to create using for example excel or ms access. plus-they do have realtime scanner for bonds. as far as i know-there is no other firm offer all this stuff + $5 commission on top of it.:D
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Good, I'm happy to hear that IB has decent bond capability.

Can you give me a clue how to access their scanner or how to enter a CUSIP number?

Good point about their real time bond quotes and their commissions are dynamite, as usual (as I recall $1 per bond).

Okay "lame" might have been too strong, especially if they have a scanner. Still I think they have shortcomings like no treasuries.

Thanks

Don
 
from TWS->page-> create market scanner->bonds. try in on browser version of TWS, to be make sure that you are using latest version of TWS. you may also need java 1.5 or higher to be able request details of particular bond. and yes, they give you free real time data for bonds. no one else does.
 
Quote from Bob111:

from TWS->page-> create market scanner->bonds. try in on browser version of TWS, to be make sure that you are using latest version of TWS. you may also need java 1.5 or higher to be able request details of particular bond. and yes, they give you free real time data for bonds. no one else does.
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Thanks, it worked. Looks pretty good, but I am having trouble with the date filter. It keeps telling me to enter in the YYYY/MM/DD format which I did, but it still complains. I'll have to call tech support.

Do you know if there is a way to enter a CUSIP number?

Don
 
dunno, to my eye corporate rates stink, unless you want to risk default with junk.

You can get the same return or better risk free in a plain old CD, why would I want to fool with a bond. Yes, they are easier to trade in and out of, but other than that , you are lending money cheap.
 
Quote from stock777:

dunno, to my eye corporate rates stink, unless you want to risk default with junk.

You can get the same return or better risk free in a plain old CD, why would I want to fool with a bond. Yes, they are easier to trade in and out of, but other than that , you are lending money cheap.
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Don't forget about the advantage of being able to margin bonds. If you don't care about margin than maybe CD's are okay.

Don
 
Quote from Don87109:

Don't forget about the advantage of being able to margin bonds. If you don't care about margin than maybe CD's are okay.

Don
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that what i was doing. i daytrade on margin and keep the money in very short AAA-A corps. with such low commission IB offer you can hold VERY diversified portfolio of bonds
 
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