I worked on a convert desk at a Ibank I know what I'm saying. yes anyone can buy and sell them just like corp bonds. trouble is they are less liquid, and get allocated very quickly at issues. not every dick n harry can come along and take a 50mm issue at a good bid, so you gotta know the MMs. like private equity placements and private notes, relationships and who u know matter in this business. converts are difficult to price, so everyone has their own pricing model. they are not as simple as a corp bond + options. they behave like corp bonds deep out the money, and more like equity close to in the money on the option part. find yourself a broker that deals with them if you want access to trade. but you'll find you're going no where unless you're dealing with names like JPMorgan. small brokers, intermediats may have some inventory but also crap prices to trade of. heard of ASCOTS? theyr stripped converts. you retain the equity optionality and get rid of the corp bond element. you got a cheap option and can remain short delta. apply for a prime brokerage account with JPM, Goldman, Deutsche or someone of that calibre if you're serious. otherwise get a clerk job on a convert desk in a bank and then get on the trading desk. this is like a retail equity trader wanting to trade CDOs. you won't without the right money.
Dude: I was referring to a Bloomberg terminal not dot com! You may want to read up a bit before trading converts.
Yes, this is for the INTC 2.95% 12/35 junior subordinated convertible debentures... Good luck with your quest... Just out of curiosity, imagine I am a broker that can deal in these for you and I can offer you some at par. How would you go about deciding if this is cheap or rich?
i like to buy busted convertibles in "special situation" companies... the last ones i bot(this spring) were the Nova Gold 5% due in 2015..conversion rate of 94.2418 common shares per US$1,000 principal amount of Notes, i tried to buy 100 bonds,but was only able to get 49 bonds @ 41..then they started to walk me up ,so i pulled the rest.i thought they were worth about 38 a bond.And were bot thru the bond desk at Wachovia..no telling how many points they put in them. current yield was over 10%, plus double your money in 6 years,plus the equity conversion feature.NG had crappy management,but it's an interesting story with the new "Partners".. the price now is in the 80's. just my thoughts,regards,p1976 http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS123795+20-Mar-2008+MW20080320 http://www.novagold.com/section.asp?pageid=7391
And if anyone has some busted convertible ideas in the mining,energy,agriculture,or other countries...i would love to have your thoughts. regards,p1976 uh,not like the Edge Petroleum preferreds ,which i did NOT buy.
Is it really that hard to trade convertible bonds then? For an induvidual with limited funds that is. Well the yield is 2.95% which is less than the T-Bonds for that maturity by about 1%. However there is a call option thrown in for free, so that sweetens the deal By the way, you still did not tell me how you found out the CUSIP number?