Bonds can be bought and sold using limit orders. A limit order is an order to buy or sell a fixed-income instrument at a specific price or better. A buy limit order will only execute at the limit price or lower, and will only sell at the limit price or higher.
A limit order is not guaranteed to be executed. A limit order can only be filled if the bond’s market price reaches the limit price. While limit orders do not guarantee execution, they help ensure that an investor does not pay more than a predetermined price for a bond.
Bond Orders are ‘good for the day’, which means if the order is not executed by the end of the trading day (4:00 pm EST) it will be canceled.
How are bonds quoted?
The way bonds are displayed and quoted differs from how equities are quoted. The limit price is a representation of 1/10 of the price, it's an industry standard to display the limit price this way. So the limit price of $99 would be purchasing a bond for $990.
How to place a buy order for bonds?
Follow the steps below to place a buy-limit order for a bond in the app.
Tap the Trade Button at the bottom middle of the screen and select Bonds
You can review the Bonds available and filter based on what you are looking for
Select your bond of interest then Tap Trade
Select Buy, then enter your limit price and quantity
Select Review Order and once reviewed you can Place an Order for processing
Follow the steps below to place a buy-limit order for a bond on the Web.
Select Bonds located in the panel on the left
You can review the Bonds available and filter based on what you are looking for
Select the Bond of Interest and enter the limit price and quantity in the panel on the right
Select Review Order and once reviewed you can Place an Order for processing
What is the minimum on a bond order?
When placing a bond order, be mindful of checking what the minimum is. You can view the minimum on the order screen under ‘Quantity’ where it says ‘Min’. If this Min shows 1,000 this represents the face/par value you will receive at maturity ($1,000). You will need to specify the order quantity in terms of the par/face value.
Example 1) if the Min shows 1,000 and you wanted to purchase 1 bond you would enter 1 in the quantity box.
Example 2) If the Min shows 5,000 the minimum purchase amount would be five bonds and you would input 5 in the quantity box.
Par/face value or sizes represent the quantity in terms of face value which (e.g., an order with a par of $5000 for a corporate bond with a face value of $1000 results in an order for five bonds).
How to place a sell order for bonds?
Follow the steps below to place a sell limit order for a bond in the app.
Open the Public App and select Portfolio located on the bottom left
Select your bond of interest then select Trade
Select Sell, then enter your limit price and quantity
Select Review Order and once reviewed you can Place an Order for processing
Follow the steps below to place a sell limit order for a bond on the Web.
Log in and select the portfolio located on the left
Select the bond of interest
Click ‘Sell’ in the panel on the right, then enter your limit price and quantity
Select Review Order and once reviewed you can Place an Order for processing
For further questions please contact the Member Support team via in-app chat or email at support@public.com.