Corporate Bond Bid/ Ask Spread

I was wondering if someone could let me know if there is someplace to see the real real time bid ask spread for corporate bonds, or do I just have to trust what my broker says it is? I always assumed liquidity was extremely thin but if I see the last trade price was 89.75 and I want to unload around there I can't because my broker says the best ask is 86.75. When you are talking about 20 bonds that's a chunk of change in my world. Any info would be much appreciated!


RA

 

tradeweb
brokertec

i think IB can give bond quotes pooled from different places. but bonds aren't traded like stocks so the quotes you see might only be indicatives

 

Interactive Brokers displays the bid/ask from NYSE or the Bond Desk. The spreads are generally terrible on all but the most traded bonds and frequently there's no bid and/or ask displayed. If you want to sell at a decent price you'll have to put in an ask price and just wait it out. As long as you have 10 bonds to sell, you've got a shot.

 

Interesting. I wonder why BATS or some other equity ECN hasn't created an ECN for bonds -- I'd expect that it would dramatically improve pricing efficiency in the bond market. Is there some regulatory hurdle, or is it just inertia?

 

Thanks so much the info

 

I think there's just way too little volume to make it worthwhile. The big players make purchases and hold long term. There's just not that much bond trading (relative to stocks).

 

if you are a bond trader at a bank the last thing you want is pricing efficiency.

 

lol, clueless