Rice transparency in the bond market? such a thing has been almost as hard to get as a list of Sad-dam's safe houses. This mystery means that ordinary investors, as opposed to giant institutions, often end up settling for whatever price their broker palms off on them. You might end up paying a markup of 0.25 to 3 points over what the broker paid for the bond. There are ways around the problem, of course. For instance, you can always restrict your purchases to new-issue bonds, where you pay the same price as a huge mutual fund. Or if you insist on already-issued bonds, splurge by spending a minimum $100,000, which gives you a better shot at getting treated like the big boys. But what if you insist on bonds in the secondary-market and don't wish to spend that kind of money?
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