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BONDS

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Although the Internet has changed the nature of stock trading making it much more accessible to the individual investor, until recently the bond market has remained the province of a narrower group of professionals. However, in 1999 and 2000 several companies arose to change that situation.

Then, in April, 2001, a Cnet.com news story reported that "TowerGroup...lists 106 electronic platforms that transact fixed-income securities as new issues or in the secondary market." The story went on to say that of those only 25 were actually trading and 8 had already merged or were failing or had already disappeared. At their website, Celent.com reported that "Over 80 bond trading systems are now competing for the leadership in the US bond market." The problem seemed to be too many new companies pursuing too few customers.

Below is our list of electronic bond trading sites. Some may still be strictly for institutional investors or brokers. Others are tailored to individuals. Many are in flux.

• The Goldman Sachs Group Inc., BondDesk.com LLC, Susquehanna Partners GP, Paine Webber Group Inc. and Bear Stearns & Co. Inc. have joined to create an online industry-wide municipal bond marketplace, MuniGroup.com LLC, which they expect to transform this $1.5 billion industry. The companies announced that the new exchange will serve the primary and secondary markets and bring together high-quality live and executable inventory. They expect that bringing municipal bond buyers and sellers together in one marketplace will result in a lestt fragmented, price-transparent and more efficient market. MuniGroup.com has an exclusive license with BondDesk.com , which will provide the technology for the trades.
• According to a June 2000 article in the Wall Street Journal, online trading has made progress in the Treasury market, where a firm called TradeWeb Inc. has quickly captured as much as 20% of the market. By Fall'00 TradeWeb was mentioned in an InfoWorld.com article as being one of the top three online bond trading sites.
• Another large online bond trading site listed in the above article is TheMuniCenter , a service of Chapdelaine & Co.
• For many printed douments available online in PDF format, go to MuniDocs.cc , a company which enhances the underwriting process via electronic transcripts.
• MarketAxess is a leading Internet-based multi-dealer research and trading platform for credit products. In April 2001 it announced it had bought Trading Edge , which owns BondLink, the premier technology for anonymous trading of fixed-income products.
• Garban InterCapital
• eBondUSA
• Bond Connect
• BondMart
• BrokerTec
• eSpeed
• Visible Markets

For news on industry trends, go to The Bond Market Association

For useful information for municipal securities investors, dealers and the general public, go to Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board

U. S. Bonds -- General Information

Bonds Online - A large, comprehensive site.

Bond Village - Aimed at both individual investors and financial planners.

Savings Bonds - U. S. Government Site.

Federal Reserve Bank of NY - Search on "bonds" to find many good articles.

The Bond Market Association

InvestingInBonds.com

Bond Trac - Offers some services free.

First Chicago Capital Markets - Promoting new bond issues online.

Bond Knowledge -- Interest rate products, and the economics that affect them including commentary, tutorials, and other bond related resources.

Yet more bond links from Investorguide.

Financial Planners and Brokerageswith lots of free information online