Series 65: Bond Notation

Bond Notation

There are so many outstanding bond issues that it would be virtually impossible to list current prices for all of them in the popular or financial media. Only a small fraction of bonds trade on any one day, because most individual bondholders purchase their securities with the intent to receive regular interest and hold them until they mature. Investors can find representative information on bond prices, interest rates, and other information in the media and elsewhere online to help them make investing decisions.

Corporate bond listings typically show the coupon (interest) rate, maturity date, and last price. The listing table in the media also shows the current yield and includes the volume traded. Corporate bond listings would look similar to those below:

The companies issuing the bonds are listed in the first column, in this case ABC and XYZ. Following the names appears the interest rate paid by the bond as a percentage of its par value: ABC’s bonds pay 6%, and XYZ’s bonds pay 6 5/8%. The small “s” in the ABC listing refers to the semiannual nature of the