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Bond desk questions

johnNjohnN
in Fund Discussions
Hope you folks are doing well. Just a question. I used zions direct bond desk before to purchase different bonds at various time. They have transferred their services to Interactive Trader, so far I am very disappoint with the services and bonds/very difficult trading there at their platform @ Interactive Trade/broker.

Do you folks know any other bond desks out there that you've used /have good experiences with.
I also used charles schwab, boa, and fidelity - all about same I think reasonable prices reasonable services.
Thinking of joining Stoever Glass

Any ideas/bond desks for individual bonds/EFT purchases you folks prefer out there?

Comments

  • fundalarmfundalarm
    didn't you work with Raymond James rep some time in the past, John?
  • davidrmorandavidrmoran
    Ted has a bond guy he makes sound v savvy.
  • johnNjohnN
    edited August 2017
    Hi fundalarm: I've worked w/ edward jones before but IMHO the firm is a rip off. the advisors charge 2% annually and every bonds I find /they sell ~ 1% more more than other firms. The little guy like myself keep loosing $$ at the firm for advisor fees. Stopped using them since 4 years ago. Edward Jones can give you good analysis regarding bonds you want to buy, and most of them are safe BBB- or higher rated but you probably can do all the research yourself about bonds and set up a google.com/alert the tell if the bond will bankrup or go to moodys.com- very simple things to do to find research about the bonds. you can also ask schwab-bond specialist to do research about the bonds before you buy. Most bonds at schwab are very good ratings but sometimes I want to buy bonds are little junky higher yields BB or higher. If you buy good companies risks of bankruptcy is very low. I think bonds maybe more attractive than stocks, Funds/ETFs because you dont pay a fee, you still make little money if market is up or down and you can sleep better at night.
  • TedTed
    @johnN: Sorry, but you've hit on a sore spot with me. Unlike stock, where it it easy to get a quote the vast majority of bonds sell on the over the counter market at whatever price bond traders can get for them. A lot depends on how many individual bonds you want to buy, generally in $1,000 denomination, and their grade from junk to investment grade. When I buy bonds I make a bid and it is either excepted or rejected by the the bond house. I use Morgan Stanley who has the largest bond trading desk among the various brokerage houses, and since I'm a client I usually get a cheaper price if the bonds I want to buy a held in-house. If MS has to go on the street for what i want the price will generally be higher. The mark-up in bonds can be as high as 4%. Example, a bond a trader paid $960 might try sell at par, $1,000. Today I bought 18 HTZ 1/21 7.375% coupon 10 for $979.97 and 8 at $980.04
    Regards,
    Ted
  • johnNjohnN
    edited August 2017
    ok thx! will look at morgan stanley. bought morgan stanley ladder bond few yrs ago, still has them still yield ~ 5-6% annually until last yr, unfortunately they called. thx Ted
  • msf
    Sorry to hear about zion. I never used them but they looked like they did a good job at pricing. I've used Fidelity for a few muni bonds and checked on EMMA to see whether I got fair prices. I've been satisfied, and the platform is easy to use.

    I haven't compared Schwab and Fidelity in quite awhile, but when I did it seemed that Fidelity's prices were at least as good, often better, than Schwab's. However that may represent just a small sampling.
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