Phillip Securities Pte Ltd is a multi-asset investment broker and POEMS is the platform where you can get your multi-asset investment access, including bonds a.k.a fixed income directly. How to check bond prices directly? From the image, you can see that from desktop login, you just have to navigate the tabs Prices (LP1) and subsequently Bonds. Then you can navigate to the search box on the right.
Fewer people buy bonds directly in Singapore because their ticket sizes can be to the tune of $250,000 each. However, there are smaller ticket sizes too. The motivation for this write up is in part due to the hype in Astrea7PE bonds offered by Temasek-owned Azalea this May2022. I am not going to comment on it while I do offer them as a Financial Advisor Trading Representative of PhillipCapital. Application closes at noon Wednesday May 25, 2022.
Ok with that aside, there are high net worth individuals who buy and hold bonds to maturity. Face it, the investment intent for income will never go away. This major instrument is also known as debt securities, simply because the issuers are the debtors and the bond owners are the creditors to the issuers.
By the way, did you know that the bond market is larger than the equities market? Yes because a company may issue different classes of shares, across different exchanges (NIO has its third listing in SGX) but a company can issue dozens of bond issues of different seniorities.
It is good to know how to check bond prices especially when you know the bond name. From the image screenshot, you can already notice Alibaba group holdings having 2 issues of different maturity dates. And there are some Perpetuals with of course, call dates, to give issuers the opportunity to redeem/repay the debt when interest rates are favorable for them to do so (ie cheaper to re-finance with another debt issue when rates go down.)
The coupons are not too shabby. Well understand in the credit risk gradient spectrum, high yield comes with higher credit default risk. Unless explicitly stated, non payment of a coupon is a credit event that might trigger cross defaults and redemption calls from other debt issues of that issuer. Considering that debt holders have a higher pecking order over the cashflows of an issuer, you can understand why some people like fixed income.
Whenever I teach CFP M4 classes, I always make a point to explain that bond prices do not fluctuate much (lesser trading for price discovery) and hence are seen to be less volatile as an asset class. But when the issuer is discovered to run into financial difficulties, its bond price can drop in impulse fashion (in part due to illiquidity). And this impulse drop understates the volatility of this asset class as well.
The transactions are mostly OTC (Over-the-counter) so it is best to call in to speak with your broker. Market dynamics apply still, hence the spread in bid and offer pricing. The broker will also advise on the dirty pricing (seller will want his/her pro-rated upcoming coupon) as well. Enough said, you want more? Open your free POEMS account with Isaac.
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