FINRA shows intra-day trade data for different CUSIPs, marking each trade as reported by the seller, the buyer, or dealer-to-dealer. I included a sample out of a bond that traded today between $89.4 and $91.1 below my signature. When I call my brokers and I get quotes of $94 to $95.8. So it's clearly frustrating that even when the market has a lot of liquidity on a given day the brokers give really lousy quotes. At end of day with the bond trading at $89.50, someone quoting me $95.8 is stealing 6.5% of my equity as their commission. It's just not acceptable. There has to be a better way.
If you want better price executions on bonds, who are the brokers who are most likely to give that to you?
Is there a better way to trade these? As a retail investor, what strategies can you employ?
If your account gets to a certain size (and what is that size?) do you get additional options for better pricing?