Free Online Database Gives Advisors Prices On 70,000 Bonds Plus Fixed Income Analytics Hot

The database covers 70,000 bonds from 350 dealers and is being provided online by Carolina Capital Markets (CCM), an institutional bond brokerage that started targeting independent advisors about two years ago. The database includes corporate, municipal, emerging market, and mortgage-backed bonds.

CCM CEO Tom Shugrue says advisors who buy individual bonds for clients can use the platform  to check prices, and that advisors often overpay when using their custodian’s bond desk.

“We believe the transparency provided by the tool works to our advantage,” says Shugrue.

Shugrue says CCM built the online tool to give advisors access to data that larger institutional investors routinely get from a Bloomberg terminal.

“Since most advisors are not heavy traders and cannot justify the $20,000 cost of a Bloomberg terminal, we created the bond database,” says Shugrue.  

In addition to prices, the platform enables advisors to perform some analytics. For instance, an advisor can upload data about a bond portfolio to view its duration and sector concentration and also run “what-if” scenarios to show the bond portfolio’s characteristics after replacing some of the bond holdings with different issues.

CCM's online bond platform will be the subject of a 30 minute webinar on May 11 at 10:15 EDT.

In he meantime, A4A members can access the CCM Bond Platform free by registering here. (Choose John Meador as broker.)

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