TSC's Guide to Bonds Online: Site Seeing

This story is part of a two-day series about bond resources on the Web.

Compared with the glut of information available on the Web for stocks, information about bonds is downright scarce.

Oh, sure, a search for bond-related sites turns up hundreds of URLs. The Bond Market Association, the trade group representing firms that underwrite and trade debt securities, performs a great service by cataloging on its Web site dozens of sites containing bond-related information (click on "Gateway to Bond Market Links" in the left margin). But there's very little wheat amid loads of chaff. Easily half the sites are either broker-dealers with little to offer beyond market commentary, or data vendors hawking expensive analytical software to institutional investors.

However, TSC found nine sites in three categories (excluding the online brokers and the sites that display Bond Express data, which we'll discuss Friday) that are worth bookmarking. The first, in a category by itself, is Treasury Direct, which lets you buy new Treasury issues directly from the government without paying transaction fees. The second category is sites that give yield indications on the various bond markets. Finally, the Bond Market Association makes available trade data on a next-day basis for muni bonds and has plans to do the same for corporate bonds. Assuming relatively stable markets, this info will give you a sense of where the market is for the bonds you're interested in buying or selling.

Treasury Direct

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