Hi, does anyone have an account at TDWaterhouse.com or SiebertNet.com? I was wondering what the usual or average markups on corporate bond purchases are there?
Is the markup, say, 50 basis points over what a broker/dealer might list his bonds for on ValuBond or Bondtrac? Or are Waterhouse's and Siebert's markups more like 100 to 150 basis points above the broker/dealer's price?
Also, do Waterhouse and Siebert go through Fidelity's subsidiary "National Financial Services" to get their bonds--in which case National adds its own markup.
Someone working for BondPage.com told me BondPage only marks up bonds in their inventory by 12-and-a-half basis points. Can anyone recommend other sites like BondPage.com?
Better yet, can anyone recommend any discount brokers or bond sites that act only as agents, meaning they don't markup; they just charge a commission. And which discount brokers / bond web sites let their customers peruse bond offerings as they directly appear on ValuBond or Bondtrac?
I can tell you that my discounter Scottrade does exactly that, and they are wonderful. Scottrade.Com provides an interface directly to Bondtrac (which is like ValueBond). Just as great, Scottrade just charges one flat $50 commission on corporate (and muni) bond purchases--mind you that's not $5 per bond but just 50 dollars FLAT regardless of the number of bonds you buy--even a thousand! Now that's a great agent! That $50 flat fee is good for all online bond purchases. If you call'em,
then they charge by the bond, but still very reasonably. No markups at Scottrade for OTC (Over-the-counter) bonds in the secondary market. They
are a bond-buyer's dream.
Are there any other places like that?
Many thanks.