How to Find Out What My Bonds Are Worth
Like an individual equity, individual bonds have many factors that affect their price, including interest rate, length to maturity, credit quality and many other variables. Unlike stocks, however, most bonds do not trade on a public exchange, and thus may be more difficult to price. Fortunately, there is an available market for most bonds, even ones that do not trade on an exchange, and thus there are many sources to quote bond prices.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Check your account statement. As bonds are generally long-term investments, most investors don't need moment-to-moment pricing of their bonds as they might with stocks. Your financial services firm should send out account statements with accurate pricing of your bonds at least quarterly, and generally monthly. If your broker has the capability, sign up for online access to your account, and you will be able to check your statement and bond prices as often as you like.
-
2
Contact your financial representative. Whether you use the services of an online brokerage or a full-service firm, a representative should be able to quote you current prices of all securities in your account, including bonds. If you intend to make a transaction, make sure to ask for two prices, the "bid" price and the "ask" price. The bid price is what someone is willing to pay for your bonds, while the ask price is what you would have to pay if you were buying the bonds.
-
-
3
Consult the financial press. While most bonds are not listed on a public exchange, some are, and these generally larger issues can be found on the pages of larger financial newspapers and websites. As these necessarily cannot be "live" prices, they usually show the range of prices your bonds traded at the previous day, including the opening and closing prices.
-
4
Find and compare similar bonds. If you still cannot find a price for your bond, your best bet may be to make a rough approximation to other bonds. Find a highly liquid bond that you can get a price for, and make sure it has the same credit quality, interest rate and time to maturity as your own bond. Although variables such as the liquidity of your bond and the specific issuer name will also affect your pricing, this is a way to get a rough approximation of the value of your bond.
-
1
