Selling Municipal Bonds

[CA renter]

We asked if we could place offers to sell, but were told that they don’t do asks, only bids. Is this usual? If scottrade doesn’t do asks, who does? Would we need to go through a full service broker such as Morgan Stanley to sell them using asks? What would be an appropriate commission to pay for this service?
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We use Fidelity for bonds, but do not have any municipal bonds at the moment (I think they are high risk, but who knows…the govt is bailing everyone else out). We can use electronic trading for the corporate, Treasury, and Agency bonds that we have, but also have Swiss Treasuries which have to be traded through their bond desk, as they are not very liquid. They also do not allow “ask” prices through the bond desk, at least on these bonds. We can just call them up at the open (5:30 a.m.) and ask them to get bids. Then, IF they get any bids, they will call us up sometime during that same day and let us know what the bids were. We can then accept or not accept the bid. If they don’t get a bid, or an acceptable bid, for the day, the “sell” order expires, and we have to do it all over again another day.

Good luck with selling your bonds! If you find a better, less expensive way to go, please post it! 🙂

[Fearful]

My experience, should it help: I had assorted CA munis. All varying maturities and sizes, but most longer term (10y – 20y). I sold off 75% in late 2007, and the remainder (odd lots, about $10K chunks) in early 2009. I used Schwab’s bond desk. Supposedly they contacted bond dealers throughout and asked for bids; I did not ask how many dealers, and which ones. My impression was that the larger chunks ($50K) got better bids, at least relative to the recent pricing noted by Schwab. The basic lesson I learned – this was my first venture into direct bond ownership – was that buying small bonds is sort of okay, though you will get a few basis points yield better beginning at about $100K, but selling small bonds is a pretty bad experience. My advice would be to call various brokers and ask at their bond desk what they could do for you and what they would recommend. If you are looking at an assortment of small bonds, you may be out of luck.

There are also muni bond dealers who post their ask prices on the web.

[Fearful]

My experience, should it help: I had assorted CA munis. All varying maturities and sizes, but most longer term (10y – 20y). I sold off 75% in late 2007, and the remainder (odd lots, about $10K chunks) in early 2009. I used Schwab’s bond desk. Supposedly they contacted bond dealers throughout and asked for bids; I did not ask how many dealers, and which ones. My impression was that the larger chunks ($50K) got better bids, at least relative to the recent pricing noted by Schwab. The basic lesson I learned – this was my first venture into direct bond ownership – was that buying small bonds is sort of okay, though you will get a few basis points yield better beginning at about $100K, but selling small bonds is a pretty bad experience. My advice would be to call various brokers and ask at their bond desk what they could do for you and what they would recommend. If you are looking at an assortment of small bonds, you may be out of luck.

There are also muni bond dealers who post their ask prices on the web.

[Fearful]

My experience, should it help: I had assorted CA munis. All varying maturities and sizes, but most longer term (10y – 20y). I sold off 75% in late 2007, and the remainder (odd lots, about $10K chunks) in early 2009. I used Schwab’s bond desk. Supposedly they contacted bond dealers throughout and asked for bids; I did not ask how many dealers, and which ones. My impression was that the larger chunks ($50K) got better bids, at least relative to the recent pricing noted by Schwab. The basic lesson I learned – this was my first venture into direct bond ownership – was that buying small bonds is sort of okay, though you will get a few basis points yield better beginning at about $100K, but selling small bonds is a pretty bad experience. My advice would be to call various brokers and ask at their bond desk what they could do for you and what they would recommend. If you are looking at an assortment of small bonds, you may be out of luck.

There are also muni bond dealers who post their ask prices on the web.

[Fearful]

My experience, should it help: I had assorted CA munis. All varying maturities and sizes, but most longer term (10y – 20y). I sold off 75% in late 2007, and the remainder (odd lots, about $10K chunks) in early 2009. I used Schwab’s bond desk. Supposedly they contacted bond dealers throughout and asked for bids; I did not ask how many dealers, and which ones. My impression was that the larger chunks ($50K) got better bids, at least relative to the recent pricing noted by Schwab. The basic lesson I learned – this was my first venture into direct bond ownership – was that buying small bonds is sort of okay, though you will get a few basis points yield better beginning at about $100K, but selling small bonds is a pretty bad experience. My advice would be to call various brokers and ask at their bond desk what they could do for you and what they would recommend. If you are looking at an assortment of small bonds, you may be out of luck.

There are also muni bond dealers who post their ask prices on the web.

[Fearful]

My experience, should it help: I had assorted CA munis. All varying maturities and sizes, but most longer term (10y – 20y). I sold off 75% in late 2007, and the remainder (odd lots, about $10K chunks) in early 2009. I used Schwab’s bond desk. Supposedly they contacted bond dealers throughout and asked for bids; I did not ask how many dealers, and which ones. My impression was that the larger chunks ($50K) got better bids, at least relative to the recent pricing noted by Schwab. The basic lesson I learned – this was my first venture into direct bond ownership – was that buying small bonds is sort of okay, though you will get a few basis points yield better beginning at about $100K, but selling small bonds is a pretty bad experience. My advice would be to call various brokers and ask at their bond desk what they could do for you and what they would recommend. If you are looking at an assortment of small bonds, you may be out of luck.

There are also muni bond dealers who post their ask prices on the web.

[XBoxBoy]

[quote=Fearful]There are also muni bond dealers who post their ask prices on the web.[/quote]

Can you provide a couple of the sites you are referring to?

Thanks,

XBoxBoy

[XBoxBoy]

[quote=Fearful]There are also muni bond dealers who post their ask prices on the web.[/quote]

Can you provide a couple of the sites you are referring to?

Thanks,

XBoxBoy

[XBoxBoy]

[quote=Fearful]There are also muni bond dealers who post their ask prices on the web.[/quote]

Can you provide a couple of the sites you are referring to?

Thanks,

XBoxBoy

[XBoxBoy]

[quote=Fearful]There are also muni bond dealers who post their ask prices on the web.[/quote]

Can you provide a couple of the sites you are referring to?

Thanks,

XBoxBoy

[XBoxBoy]

[quote=Fearful]There are also muni bond dealers who post their ask prices on the web.[/quote]

Can you provide a couple of the sites you are referring to?

Thanks,

XBoxBoy

[Fearful]

Sorry, I do not remember the exact web site name, but I recall beginning with a simple search for “municipal bond prices” and going from there. Best of luck.

[Fearful]

Sorry, I do not remember the exact web site name, but I recall beginning with a simple search for “municipal bond prices” and going from there. Best of luck.

[Fearful]

Sorry, I do not remember the exact web site name, but I recall beginning with a simple search for “municipal bond prices” and going from there. Best of luck.

[Fearful]

Sorry, I do not remember the exact web site name, but I recall beginning with a simple search for “municipal bond prices” and going from there. Best of luck.

[Author]

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