Does IB have a special margin rate for these ETF's then? I guess bonds are not identified as a special group in PM. I assume with slightly higher you don't mean 10 times higher but still low (in your opinion).
Is all this worth it for a few bps? If you lock in a t-bill, the want to go long stock, you will have a borrow to pay.
You could simply buy a wide box in the SPX. Minimal commissions, and you can decide how far out you want to go. Put the order in as a spread at the implied rate you want to get. If you're not filled, you can walk the price down to the minimum rate you are willing to take.
Interesting, aiming to shift some funds into corporate bonds as well. And true, selection is very limited in the investment grade segment that yield 4-5%, I use the bond screener and initially my eyes caught KFW bonds but I think the bond coupon rates for some of the KFWs are wrongly recorded in IB's static database because the same bonds they showed yielding 4.xx% to maturity with a remaining duration of around 1 year showed on Bloomberg at around a ytm of 3.xx% and a different coupon rate. Both Cusips matched though. Weird and will revisit next week. Would be very keen to build out my corporate bond portfolio as well as I currently do not trade much in the discretionary book for lack of conviction.do you use any other data sources for corporate bonds aside IB?
Also using the bond scanner here and usually not double checking via other sources, although reading your post it might be a mistake. Definitely noticed dodgy data in the past on IB, most memorably regarding expected dividends. Fwiw I've tried several times buying bonds through a HK bank (chinese owned bank, private bank level), mostly new chinese corporate issuance and it didn't go well. I feel much safer using IB, although the primary market seems more difficult to access through IB.
Why interested in primary markets? I do not intend to hold throughout the entire lifetime hence only look in the secondary market for those with remaining durations of a year or so. But that's just me
Because bonds are usually issued at a slight discount, and I actually plan to hold for the lifetime of the bond, although in case they need to be sold before maturity it is probably better to sell the bonds through IB than through a bank. Also because the money needed to keep the bank account needs to be invested and new bond issuance did look like the best deal on offer (afte ra few more looks I ended up with 0 bonds there.. go figure). IB does seem to have a bond desk , so the primary market might be accessible to some customers, not sure about that. Besides I'm surprised you can find any investment grade bonds yielding 4% 1 year before expiration, I'll have a look on kfw bonds.
Well again, that 4% KfW yielding one did not seem correctly priced at IB, but then I lack a number of bond data subscriptions which might be the reason, can say more early next week when I have more time to check. By the way do you know what margins are at IB for investment grade corporate bond holdings? I do not want to tie up my entire capital allocation with those issues but from experience working at banks and hedge funds corporate bond trading has always been one of the most capital intensive asset classes hence I am expecting little to no leverage with IB.