CHAPTER 2 How Do I Get Started?
第二章 我该如何开始？
It is likely that you already have a relationship with an FI and/or an IA. It may be a bank, a bank-owned investment dealer, an independent brokerage firm, a mutual fund company, a financial planning company, a life insurance company, or a trust company. All of these entities, through their IAs or agents, first attempt to sell you their products, even if they are not suitable for you. Very few IAs (my guess is 10 percent) actually have your best interests in mind. Therefore, you will have to arm yourself with all the knowledge you can and find an experienced IA to act for you.
你可能已经和某家金融机构（FI）和/或投资顾问（IA）有了联系。这可能是银行、银行拥有的投资交易商、独立经纪公司、共同基金公司、理财规划公司、人寿保险公司或信托公司。所有这些机构通过他们的投资顾问或代理，首先尝试推销他们自己的产品，即使这些产品并不适合你。实际上，真正把你的利益放在心上的投资顾问非常少（我估计大约只有10%）。因此，你必须尽可能多地武装自己，寻找一位有经验的投资顾问为你服务。
Your IA's firm will have lots of educational material available and there are a plethora of websites to help you along. I have included this list in Appendix A. These websites offer all kinds of analytical tools. The daily newspapers offer some commentary, and television shows such as CNBC and the Business News Network (BNN) have expert commentators on a regular basis, including me. There are books available, and your IA's firm will likely offer daily, weekly, and monthly bond market commentary. Over time, all of this information will stand you in good stead as you will have a good knowledge base.
你的投资顾问所在的公司会提供大量的教育材料，还有众多网站可以为你提供帮助。我在附录A中列出了这些网站。这些网站提供各种各样的分析工具。报纸每天会有一些评论节目，而诸如CNBC和商业新闻网络（BNN）这样的电视节目，也会定期邀请专家评论，其中就包括我。市面上有不少书籍可供阅读，你的投资顾问所在的公司也可能会提供每日、每周和每月的债券市场评论。随着时间的推移，所有这些信息都会为你打下坚实的知识基础。
So, armed with all this knowledge, you should be able to get your broker/advisor to do what you want, shouldn't you? Not necessarily! Each pillar of the financial services industry (banks, trust companies, mutual fund companies, life insurers, investment dealers, and advisors/ planners) has a vested interest in selling you what is in its best interest, not yours. Rare is the organization (or individual) that actually listens well enough to ascertain the needs of the client and takes care to make sure those needs are met, even at the expense of a sale that might produce greater near-term reward.
所以，凭借这些知识，你应该能够让你的经纪人/顾问做到你想要的，对吧？未必如此！金融服务行业的各个支柱（银行、信托公司、共同基金公司、人寿保险公司、投资交易商以及顾问/规划师）都有自己的既得利益，推销的是符合他们利益的产品，而不是你的利益。真正能认真倾听客户需求并确保这些需求得到满足的（哪怕因此牺牲可能获得的更高短期收益）组织或个人是非常罕见的。
How and where do you find such people? The number one method is referral, from an IAs satisfied clients or from lawyers, accountants, and friends. Ask, ask, ask, and eventually you will find someone who will help you. At some point, you will likely receive what are called cold calls. These come from IAs just starting out who are trying to build their books. It is in your best interest to find IAs with experience and well-established books of business so that you are well served. It is a further bonus if they offer fee-based services and thus are not driven by the need to generate commissions on every trade. It is possible that you may not find such IAs or your account may not be large enough for them. The major investment dealers offer superb training for new IAs, which includes the fixed-income markets. Therefore, you may find a newer IA who might be suitable for you, but remember to ask, ask, ask.
那么，如何以及在哪里才能找到这样的人呢？最主要的方法是通过推荐，来自满意的客户或是律师、会计师和朋友的推荐。多问，多问，最终你就会找到愿意帮助你的人。在某个时点，你可能会接到所谓的冷电话。这些电话通常来自刚起步的投资顾问，他们正试图建立自己的客户群。出于你的利益考虑，应尽量选择那些有丰富经验、客户基础雄厚的投资顾问，以便为你提供良好的服务。如果他们提供基于费用的服务，那更是一个额外的优点，因为他们不会因为需要在每一笔交易中赚取佣金而受到驱动。也有可能你找不到这样的投资顾问，或者你的账户规模对于他们来说不够大。主要投资交易商会为新投资顾问提供出色的培训，其中就包括固定收益市场方面的培训。因此，你可能会找到一个较新的投资顾问，适合你的需求，但记住要多问、多比较。
This market remains a decentralized or over-the-counter market. With myriad issues to choose from and with mammoth trading volume and institutional dominance, it becomes extremely important to select the right firm and then the right adviser. The choice of a firm must be made before you pick an adviser. Extra time spent on this decision can mean significantly enhanced returns and thus a higher standard of living and more comfortable retirement!
这个市场仍然是一个去中心化或场外市场。面对众多可选择的产品、庞大的交易量以及机构投资者的主导作用，选择合适的公司和随后选对顾问变得极为重要。你必须先选择好一家公司，然后再挑选顾问。花更多时间来做这个决定可能会显著提升你的回报，从而提高生活水平，使退休生活更加舒适！
The first step is to determine whether an investment dealer or organization takes the retail fixed-income business and its participants seriously. Look for FIs who advertise a special focus on fixed-income needs. Develop basic questions to ask would-be financial advisors. Here are some common questions, as well as the answers you should be looking for.
第一步是确定一个投资交易商或机构是否认真对待零售固定收益业务及其参与者。寻找那些广告中突出固定收益需求的金融机构。制定一些基础问题，用来问即将成为你的理财顾问的人。以下是一些常见的问题以及你应该听到的答案。
IAs' books of business refer to how many clients they have and what the assets of those clients total.
投资顾问的业务账簿指的是他们拥有多少客户以及这些客户资产的总额。
Q: Is the retail fixed-income desk a captive of the wholesale desk or is it master of its own destiny?
A: To properly serve individual investors, the retail fixed-income desk should be focused on providing IAs and their clients with good advice and competitive pricing.
问：零售固定收益部门是隶属于批发部门的附属机构，还是它能掌控自己的命运？
答：为了适当地为个人投资者服务，零售固定收益部门应专注于为投资顾问及他们的客户提供良好的建议和有竞争力的定价。
Q: Is it a stand-alone profit centre or is the desk's compensation linked to the overall growth of the firm's fixed-income business?
A: A desk that is motivated to grow the business of the IAs will offer the best overall service.
问：这是一个独立的利润中心，还是该部门的报酬与整个公司固定收益业务的总体增长挂钩？
答：一个致力于推动投资顾问业务增长的部门会提供最优质的整体服务。
Q: What percentage of your business is fixed-income?
A: It should be in the 20 percent to 50 percent range.
问：你们的业务中固定收益产品占比是多少？
答：应在20%到50%之间。
Q: How is the Bank Rate set?
A: You should be told that it's set at regularly scheduled meetings of the Bank of Canada (bankofcanada.ca).
问：银行利率是如何确定的？
答：你应该被告知，银行利率是在加拿大银行的定期会议上确定的（bankofcanada.ca）。
Q: Assuming I have $100,000 in my RRSP, what kind of fixed-income portfolio would you recommend in individual securities?
A: IAs should mention stripped bonds (zero coupons), corporate bonds, real return bonds, and the concept of laddering, perhaps Exchange Traded Bond Funds (ETFs), and should not suggest bond mutual funds.
问：假设我的RRSP账户中有10万加元，你会推荐哪些个别证券构成固定收益组合？
答：投资顾问应提及剥离债券（零息债券）、公司债券、实际回报债券和阶梯投资的概念，也可能会提到ETF，而不应建议购买债券共同基金。
Q: What is the difference between semi-annual and annual yield?
A: It depends on the level of nominal rates. It is an important question, since GICs, for example, are quoted in annual yield terms while most bonds are offered in semi-annual terms. Most firms will convert one to the other for fair comparison. It is in your best interest to ensure that you are being offered an apples-to-apples comparison, since annual yields may appear to be higher than semi-annual yields when, in fact, they may be the same or even lower.
问：半年收益率和年收益率有什么区别？
答：这取决于名义利率的水平。这是个重要问题，因为例如定期存款（GIC）是以年收益率报价，而大多数债券都是以半年计算收益率。大多数公司会将两者进行转换，以便公平比较。确保你获得的是“苹果对苹果”的比较至关重要，因为年收益率看起来可能比半年收益率高，但实际上可能相同甚至更低。
Q: How much commission do you charge on bond trades?
A: If they answer at all, it should be between 0.5 percent and 1 percent. They may be fee based, which is expensive for fixed-income portfolios.
问：你们在债券交易中收取多少佣金？
答：如果他们回答，佣金应在0.5%到1%之间。也可能是基于费用的，但这对于固定收益组合来说会显得较贵。
Q: Do you know what duration is?
A: This is important as it represents the risk and volatility of a bond. It is the average term of a bond, including the interest payments.
问：你知道什么是久期吗？
答：这一点很重要，因为它代表了债券的风险和波动性。久期是指债券（包括利息支付）的平均到期期限。
Q: What is the size of your book and how many clients do you have?
A: A minimum size of $100 million and perhaps 250 clients would indicate a successful IA and one who, therefore, would not need to do frequent transactions to make a living. Ask if they are willing to do a price comparison test with other FIs. It may not be easy to get these answers, but persist. Ask friends, read the financial papers, listen, observe.
问：你的客户账簿规模是多少？有多少客户？
答：如果账簿规模至少为1亿加元，客户数量大约250人，这就表明这位投资顾问非常成功，因此不需要频繁交易就能维持生计。问问他们是否愿意与其他金融机构做价格比较测试。可能这些答案不容易得到，但要坚持，多问朋友、读财经报纸、观察、倾听。
Q: If I find the right advisor, how easy or difficult is it to move my account from my existing financial institution?
A: Naturally, FIs are not keen to see customers leave and so they do not make it easy to do so. In days gone by, it was a genuine hassle to move your account. Now the rules have changed and your account must be moved, in cash or kind, within days or the FI faces fines. It also helps that almost all securities are book-based, so this transfer becomes a simple matter of a computer transfer - plus the inevitable paperwork, of course. The FI that you are moving to will expedite the transfer.
问：如果我找到合适的顾问，将账户从当前金融机构转移有多容易或困难？
答：自然，金融机构并不乐意看到客户离开，所以他们不会让你轻易转移账户。过去，转移账户确实是一件麻烦事。但现在规则已改，要求你的账户必须在几天内以现金或实物方式转移，否则该金融机构将面临罚款。再加上几乎所有证券都是记账式交易，这使得转移变成了电脑转账的简单操作——当然，还得处理一些不可避免的文件工作。你所转入的金融机构会加速转移流程。
To move your account, first open a new account with the new FI. Once that is done, complete, with the help of your new IA, a Request for Transfer Form, which serves notice to your former firm that you would like to transfer your account. The former firm must reply within two days and deliver all the securities and cash, within ten days. For a complete description of this process, visit www.IIROC.ca and look in the Investor Education section.
要转移账户，首先在新金融机构开设一个新账户。完成后，在新投资顾问的协助下填写一份转账申请表，该表格通知原公司你希望转移账户。原公司必须在两天内回复，并在十天内交付所有证券和现金。关于此流程的完整说明，请访问 www.IIROC.ca 并查看“投资者教育”部分。
The absolute worst part of this process is the treatment that you may receive from the FI that you are leaving. There are horror stories of the departing IA being attacked verbally and his clients being given the full court press to stay. Typically, the departing IA's accounts are divided among some more junior IAs and they really go after these clients. Sometimes, incentives are offered in the way of fee reductions and the like. If you really like your IA, go with him/her to the new FI. IAs do not move often, largely as a result of this treatment.
这一流程中最糟糕的部分可能是你从离开的金融机构所受到的待遇。有不少关于离职投资顾问受到言语攻击，以及其客户被极力挽留的恐怖故事。通常，离职的投资顾问的账户会被分配给一些更初级的投资顾问，而他们会拼命争取这些客户。有时会以减少费用等激励措施诱使客户留下。如果你真的很喜欢你的投资顾问，可以和他/她一起转到新金融机构。正因为这种待遇，投资顾问通常不会频繁跳槽。
The advisors you are seeking are not likely to be rookies. They are most likely to have more than ten years of experience with a large, balanced book of clients. They will be working for an FI that has a comprehensive inventory of individual fixed-income products and a variety of tools to make your investing easier. Most major FIs have websites replete with prices, calculators, portfolio-building strategies, and, of course, offerings of all the various products.
你所寻找的这些顾问不大可能是新人。他们很可能拥有超过十年的经验，并拥有大量且均衡的客户账簿。他们通常在拥有全面的个别固定收益产品库存以及多样化投资工具的金融机构工作。大多数主要金融机构的网站上都充斥着价格信息、计算器、投资组合构建策略，当然还有各种产品的介绍。
There are also an increasing number of institutional bond salespeople who, late in their careers, become retail advisors. They can be of immense assistance to the individual investor given their knowledge of the entire fixed-income spectrum, as well as their ability to take advantage of how the bond market functions. If you are talking to a branch manager of an FI, ask if there is an IA there who specializes in fixed-income products or has a strong knowledge of and a client base in these products. Typically, IAs with only a passing knowledge of bonds are timid and unsure in approaching the trading desk personnel, who, to such IAs, appear to be a bunch of fast-talking, untrustworthy types. Unsure of themselves and of how to interact with the market, they may shy away. However, skillful handling of the information, services, and expert personnel of the typical well-staffed fixed-income department by a person steeped in the knowledge of how this market functions can produce measurable rewards for fortunate clients. Knowledgeable IAs will have access to bargain lists, and will know of important economic releases and the upcoming borrowing calendar. These IAs are well placed to add income and yield to your portfolios. The experienced advisor also gains the respect of the traders, lets them know what his or her specific areas of interest are, and thus gets calls when specific offerings appear.
同时，越来越多的机构债券推销员在职业生涯的后期转型为零售顾问。考虑到他们对整个固定收益领域的了解以及利用债券市场运作方式的能力，他们能为个人投资者提供极大帮助。如果你与某家金融机构的分行经理交谈，可以问问那里是否有专门处理固定收益产品或在这些产品领域拥有丰富知识和客户群的投资顾问。通常，对债券仅略知一二的投资顾问，在与交易部门人员接触时会显得胆怯和不自信，而这些交易人员对他们来说似乎是一群快言快语、不可信任的人。由于缺乏自信和对如何与市场互动的知识，他们可能会退缩。然而，一个充分了解市场运作并能巧妙利用固定收益部门的信息、服务和专家人员优势的人，能够给幸运的客户带来可观回报。知识丰富的投资顾问通常能获得优惠报价清单，并了解重要经济数据发布以及即将到来的借贷日历。这些投资顾问能在你的投资组合中增加收入和收益。经验丰富的顾问还能赢得交易员的尊重，让他们知道自己关注的具体领域，从而在出现特定产品时主动得到通知。
Following are some representative questions and comments that IAs will use with their bond-trading department.
以下是一些投资顾问与他们所在债券交易部门之间经常使用的问题和评论示例。
Q: My client can buy those bonds cheaper somewhere else.
A: This is a loaded one; most of these apparent discrepancies can be explained because this is not an apples-to-apples comparison. In other words, the client (or IA) may be comparing the identical security, but one yield may be quoted in annual terms and the other one in semi-annual terms. At 5 percent this difference is 6.25 basis points even though the price is the same (see the chapter on basic math). As well, the comparison may be hours or days old, and bond prices do change minute by minute. The securities being compared may not be exactly alike; there may be slight differences in maturity, credit, or features that may affect the relative yield between different fixed-income products. Another explanation could be that another investment dealer is offering a special sale. Worse yet, advisors may be trying to get a lower transfer price (the price at which the trading department transfers bonds to IAs). This is the IAs' cost and they add a markup to earn a commission. If they do obtain a lower price from the trader, that improvement is not necessarily passed on to clients. Needless to say, traders become wise to ploys such as these and handle the offending parties appropriately.
The relevance of this is that it is an over-the-counter market and there are inefficiencies. Clients may receive, or say that they receive, better prices from another FI. It may be because one IA is charging more commission than the other or that one firm's bond desk is running a special on a certain bond. It does underscore the point that the more experienced your IA is, the better the treatment you will receive.
问：我的客户能在其他地方以更便宜的价格买到这些债券。
答：这是一个复杂的问题；大多数看似不一致的情况可以解释为这并不是一个完全相同的比较。换句话说，客户（或投资顾问）可能是在比较同一证券，但一个收益率以年化计，而另一个以半年计。在5%的情况下，这种差异为6.25个基点，虽然价格相同。（请参阅有关基础数学的章节。）另外，这种比较可能是基于几小时或几天前的数据，而债券价格是每分钟都在变化的。被比较的证券可能并不完全相同；在到期时间、信用或特征上可能存在细微差异，这可能影响不同固定收益产品之间相对收益率。另一种解释可能是另一家投资交易商正在进行特价促销。更糟糕的是，投资顾问可能试图获得更低的转移价格（即交易部门转移债券给投资顾问时的价格）。这就是投资顾问的成本，他们会在此基础上加价以赚取佣金。如果交易员确实从中获得了更低的价格，这种优惠不一定会传递给客户。不用说，交易员已经识破了这些花招，并会适当地对付相关人员。
这说明了这一点：由于市场是场外交易市场，存在一些低效率。客户可能会从另一家金融机构获得，或者声称获得了更好的价格。这可能是因为某个投资顾问的佣金比另一个高，或者某个公司的债券部门对某一债券进行特价促销。这都强调了一个观点：你选择的投资顾问越有经验，你就会获得越好的待遇。
Q: Why can I not buy this bond at the same price as quoted in the weekend newspaper?
A: This is a very common question. The newspaper quotations are snapshots of market prices at a particular instant, typically 4:00 p.m. the previous business day. They are quotations representing only the market for transactions larger than $1 million and before any brokerage or commissions are added. The large lists of bond quotations in, for example, the weekend Toronto Star or the Globe and Mail are matrix-priced, meaning that each bond is not priced individually but in relationship to the benchmark issues. In such cases, there is no allowance for any idiosyncrasies or features of a bond that could affect its price. What happens is that a keen client, eager to learn the ways of the bond market and therefore studiously following everything, discovers a few really high-yielding bonds in the weekend paper and phones an IA on Monday morning to scoop up these bargains before those slow-moving bond traders catch on.
The advisor, of course, smelling a sale, rushes to the bond desk asking for offerings without a shred of thought. In almost every case, these bonds have certain features — usually call features - that mean that the issuer may redeem those bonds before maturity and the advertised yield in the newspaper may not be realized. (The papers may not have the inclination or the space to show the yield to call.) In addition, the issue may also be small, or a private placement, in the hands of foreigners, or the whole issue could have been stripped with no public float at all. There is a public site (www.canadianfixedincome. ca) where you can obtain live wholesale markets. These are also not prices at which individuals will be able to transact, but they do offer valuable market information.
问：为什么我不能以周末报纸上报价的相同价格买到这只债券？
答：这是一个非常常见的问题。报纸报价只是某个特定时间点的市场价格快照，通常是前一个营业日的下午4:00。这些报价只代表面向超过100万加元交易的大宗市场，并且不包括任何经纪费用。比如《多伦多星报》或《环球邮报》周末刊登的大量债券报价，都是通过矩阵定价得出的，即每只债券并非独立定价，而是相对于基准产品定价。在这种情况下，没有考虑债券的任何个性特征或可能影响其价格的因素。结果是，一个热衷于了解债券市场规律并因此密切关注市场的客户，会在周末的报纸上发现几只高收益率的债券，然后在周一早晨打电话给投资顾问，希望在那些反应较慢的债券交易员发现之前抢先买入这些便宜货。
投资顾问当然会闻到销售的气息，匆忙赶到债券交易部门要求报价，而没有稍加考虑。在几乎每一种情况下，这些债券都有一些特定的特征——通常是赎回条款，这意味着发行人可能在到期前赎回债券，而报纸上广告的收益率可能无法实现。（报纸可能不会显示到赎回日的收益率，或因为篇幅关系而省略。）此外，该债券可能规模较小，或者是私募发行，或者大部分是被剥离、完全没有公众流通量的债券。在一个公共网站（www.canadianfixedincome.ca）上，你可以获取批发市场的实时数据。虽然这些价格并非个人投资者能够成交的价格，但它们仍提供了有价值的市场信息。
Q: My client just inherited $350,000. What do I do?
A: A good retail fixed-income desk will ask the IA more questions as to quality and maturity preferences and then construct a customized portfolio. If an IA just recommends a bond fund, then this IA is not doing his or her job.
问：我的客户刚刚继承了35万加元。我该怎么办？
答：一个好的零售固定收益部门会进一步询问投资顾问有关质量和到期偏好的问题，然后为客户量身定制一个投资组合。如果一个投资顾问仅仅推荐一个债券基金，那么他/她没有尽到职责。
HOW TO GET ALONG WITH A BOND DESK
如何与债券交易部门相处
I have seen all aspects of human behaviour in managing retail fixed-income trading desks. I have built and managed three retail-oriented fixed-income trading desks since 1988. The first was for Dean Witter Canada, which was eventually sold to Midland Walwyn, which got taken over by Merrill Lynch, whose retail arm was sold off to CIBC Wood Gundy, where many of the Dean Witter IAs had come from when Wood Gundy got out of retail. What a business! The second one was built for First Marathon Securities, which needed a retail-oriented bond-trading desk to service the fixed-income needs of its rapidly growing Correspondent Network, which today clears and trades for a very large number of financial organizations: some small investment dealers, some large ones, some investment counselling firms, and some investment subsidiaries of very large FIs. First Marathon was purchased by the National Bank in 1999 and merged with Lévesque, Beaubien. NBCN became the abbreviation for the National Bank Correspondent Network. And finally, the third was another retail-focused fixed-income trading desk, this time for Blackmont Capital Inc., an independent investment dealer focused on the individual investor. MacQuarie,a prominent Australian bank, bought Blackmont from CI Financial and renamed it MacQuarie Private Wealth. To all of MacQuaries IAs, my former department offers a complete array of fixed-income securities via an online, real-time order entry system. It also offers customized portfolio design, market commentary, and research. As well, it offers fixed-income securities to some of the more than two hundred IIROC members that do not have their own inventories.
在管理零售固定收益交易部门时，我见识了人性的各个方面。自1988年以来，我建立并管理了三个面向零售的固定收益交易部门。第一个是为迪恩·怀特加拿大（Dean Witter Canada）建立的，该公司后来被Midland Walwyn收购，再后被美林证券收购，美林的零售部门又被CIBC Wood Gundy收购，当Wood Gundy退出零售市场时，许多迪恩·怀特的投资顾问便随之转入。多么了不起的生意！第二个是为First Marathon Securities建立的，他们需要建立一个面向零售市场的债券交易部门，以满足其快速扩展的通讯网络中固定收益的需求，该网络目前为大量金融机构进行清算和交易：既有小型投资交易商，也有大型的，还有投资咨询公司以及大型金融机构的投资子公司。First Marathon于1999年被国家银行（National Bank）收购，并与Lévesque, Beaubien合并。NBCN成为国家银行通讯网络（National Bank Correspondent Network）的缩写。最后，第三个交易部门则是为Blackmont Capital Inc.建立的，这是一家专注于个人投资者的独立投资交易商。澳大利亚著名银行麦格理（MacQuarie）从CI Financial手中收购了Blackmont，并将其更名为麦格理私人财富（MacQuarie Private Wealth）。对于所有麦格理的投资顾问来说，我以前所在的部门通过在线实时订单录入系统，提供了全面的固定收益证券选择。它还提供定制化投资组合设计、市场评论和研究。此外，对于那些没有自己库存的两百多个IIROC会员，该部门也提供固定收益证券。
Each of these trading desks has had the same philosophy - to be in charge of its own destiny and to be driven and compensated primarily by the growth in the retail fixed-income business. In this way, IAs know that their bond-trading desk is served by helping their business to grow.
这些交易部门都有相同的理念——掌控自己的命运，并以零售固定收益业务的增长作为主要驱动力和补偿方式。通过这种方式，投资顾问知道他们的债券交易部门正是通过帮助其业务增长而获得支持。
On the one hand, I have observed thoughtless, short-term-oriented IAs adversely affecting clients' returns while alienating the trading desk at the same time. On the other, I have had the pleasure of working with enlightened, informed, intelligent, long-term-oriented IAs who reap huge benefits for their clients by adroit use of the market and the desk. No more than 10 percent of any sales force falls into this latter category — hence my focus on selecting the right advisor.
一方面，我见识过一些目光短浅、只关注短期的投资顾问，这些顾问不仅会对客户的回报产生负面影响，还会使交易部门产生不满。另一方面，我也有幸与那些开明、信息丰富、聪明并注重长期回报的投资顾问合作，他们通过巧妙利用市场和交易部门的信息，为客户带来了巨大的好处。销售力量中大约只有10%的投资顾问属于后者——因此我才如此强调选对顾问的重要性。
I have seen and heard it all: IAs looking for an ask when they really wanted a bid; strange trades initiated at month end with the sole motive of generating commission; outright lies (e.g., saying XYZ broker is offering something cheaper), pleading for a lower price only to keep the difference and not pass the savings on to the client; apples and oranges comparisons, days or hours apart; confusing annual and semi-annual yield, yelling and screaming when the price cannot be matched or has changed. To a person, these IAs say they cannot trust the desk and are getting ripped off, when really it is they who are hurting themselves and their clients through this time-wasting, counterproductive behaviour.
我见过和听过各种情况：有的投资顾问在实际上想要报价时却一味要求问价；有的在月底时发起奇怪的交易，目的只是为了生成佣金；也有直接撒谎（例如，说某某经纪商能以更便宜的价格买到）；有的只是哀求更低的价格，却最终将差价据为己有，而不把节省下来的费用传递给客户；还有用苹果和橘子作比较，时间间隔可能是几天或几小时；把年收益率和半年收益率混淆，甚至在价格无法匹配或价格发生变化时大吵大闹。有人因此认为他们无法信任交易部门，认为自己被宰了，而实际上是他们自己在浪费时间，这种行为既无效又适得其反，最终伤害的是他们自己和客户的利益。
Trading desks make or take a thousand calls a day and execute more than a thousand trades per day. They know what they are doing, what the prices are right now. Some IAs attempt to outsmart them; what they should be doing is being straight with them, and they will receive the same treatment in return. IAs should also be spending more time with their clients. I am always amazed when an acquaintance tells me that not only does he not understand what his money is invested in, but that he does not see his advisor routinely, perhaps once a year at best! At stake here is the return to the client, as consistently bad behaviour makes us leery of certain IAs, and therefore their clients will suffer.
债券交易部门每天打进来或打出去的电话数以千计，执行的交易也超过一千宗。他们清楚当前的市场状况和价格。有些投资顾问试图耍聪明；其实，他们应该坦诚相待，这样也能获得同样的回报。投资顾问还应该花更多时间陪伴客户。我总是惊讶于某些熟人不仅不清楚自己的钱投资在什么地方，甚至连理财顾问都几乎不见，最多一年见一次！客户回报在这里起着决定性作用，因为一贯的不良行为使我们对某些投资顾问产生戒心，从而使他们的客户遭受损失。
Contrast this with informed IAs who realize that the desk is on their side — at least a tool for them to use, at best an active partner in helping improve their business. They trust the traders and realize that there are bargains to be had at different times as well as (with the market knowledge of the desk) assistance in timing purchases to again help clients achieve superior yield. These astute IAs are more aware of pending release times for important, market-moving news and new-issue timing. With proper desk contact, IAs learn of temporary sell-offs or rallies to take advantage of. Trusting the desk or at least being straight with it yields huge advantages. Contrast this with the mistrustful IAs who play petty games with the traders, getting their backs up. In fact, through frequent communication with the desk, IAs may pick up gratuitous tips or advice to further their clients' (and their own) after-tax standard of living.
与此相反，一些信息灵通的投资顾问会认识到交易部门是在为他们服务——至少是一个工具，最好是一个积极的合作伙伴，帮助提高他们的业务水平。他们信任交易员，并意识到在不同时间也存在买到便宜货的机会，同时利用交易部门的市场知识帮助客户把握合适的时机，从而实现更高的收益。这些精明的投资顾问更加关注重要、可能影响市场的重要信息发布以及新债发行时机。通过与交易部门频繁沟通，投资顾问可能获得免费的小道消息或建议，从而进一步提高客户（以及他们自己）税后生活水平。
You want to seek out an IA who has a sound working knowledge of the fixed-income markets and who does a high percentage of business in fixed-income. Listen to the IA describe how he or she gets along with the desk; if it's not mentioned, ask. The answer will reveal a lot. Human nature is important; traders are human and will respond favourably to professional treatment. Of course, trading desks are not perfect. One mistake or misunderstanding in an over-the-counter market may colour one's opinion for a long time. However, a quick glance at the commission statistics will reveal in almost every case that the IAs who give the desk a hard time are in the lowest quartile of production. They waste too much time playing games with the desk and not enough time taking care of their clients. The top quartile of producers do not waste their time or the traders time through childish antics. Every retail organization where I have worked has these IAs. It is the same as with a lot of other businesses, where 10 percent of the IAs handle 90 percent of the business. You want to find one of those IAs. The other 90 percent complain and play games and just waste too much time on unimportant issues.
你应当寻找那些对固定收益市场有扎实工作知识、在固定收益业务上占比很高的投资顾问。听听他们如何描述与交易部门的相处情况；如果他们没提及，记得询问。答案往往能透露出很多信息。人性是重要的因素；交易员也是人，他们会对专业的对待给予积极响应。当然，交易部门并非完美无缺。在场外市场中，一次错误或误解可能会在长时间内影响一个人的看法。然而，只需简单浏览一下佣金统计数据就能发现，几乎所有给交易部门制造麻烦的投资顾问都处于生产力的最低四分之一。他们在与交易部门玩游戏上浪费了太多时间，而忽略了照顾客户。每个我工作过的零售机构都有这样的问题投资顾问。就像许多其他行业那样，往往10%的投资顾问承担了90%的业务。你要找的就是那些优秀的10%。而其余90%的人则只会抱怨、玩弄权术，耗费过多时间在无关紧要的事情上。
TRANSPARENCY, TRANSFER PRICES, MARKUPS, AND COMMISSIONS
透明度、转移价格、加价与佣金
Transparency: that which is transparent; a transparent object or medium
透明度：即透明的性质；透明的物体或介质
Despite efforts to make the bond market more transparent, there is still a dearth of websites where bond prices may be obtained. With the explosion in internet usage, investors are now used to finding and using useful sites. The following three organizations offer free quotes and also offer a subscription service for greater access and visibility.
尽管已经做出了很多努力来提高债券市场的透明度，但仍然缺乏能够获取债券价格的网站。随着互联网使用的爆炸性增长，投资者已经习惯于查找和使用有用的网站。以下三个机构提供免费的报价，并提供订阅服务以获得更广泛和深入的信息。
CI Financial owns Perimeter CBID, which is a marketplace where several liquidity providers make available bids and offerings on a wide selection of fixed-income securities. Perimeter CBID operates a public website: www.canadianfixedincome.ca. Besides offering live markets on approximately 2,500 bonds, it also contains the previous day's closing prices, actively traded corporates, and featured quotations. For $19.95 per month, investors may subscribe to Bondview, which offers a more in-depth view of CBID's marketplace. CBID is not perfect, as it does not have all the liquidity providers, but it does present an accurate view of the retail bond market.
CI Financial 拥有 Perimeter CBID，这是一个市场平台，多个流动性提供者在这里发布各种固定收益证券的买卖报价。Perimeter CBID 运营着一个公共网站：www.canadianfixedincome.ca。除了提供大约2,500只债券的实时市场数据外，它还包含前一日的收盘价、活跃的公司债券和精选报价。只需每月$19.95，投资者即可订阅 Bondview，该服务提供了对 CBID 市场更深入的了解。虽然 CBID 并不完美，因为它没有涵盖所有的流动性提供者，但它确实展示了零售债券市场的真实情况。
编译者注：www.canadianfixedincome.ca不再存在，CBID的公共网站现在是https://retail.cbid.ca/ixbroker/
The TMX owns PC Bond, purchased from Scotia Capital. It has the most complete data base for bond prices and performance in Canada. The programs and analytics are aimed squarely at institutional customers, being far too expensive for individual investors. However, their wonderful site, www.canadianbondindices.com, has a wealth of information suitable for individual investors. It offers the performance of the different sectors of the bond market on a daily and historical basis. It offers live prices on a variety of government and corporate bonds along with information as to volume traded. They do not offer a subscription service.
TMX 拥有 PC Bond，该系统是从 Scotiabank Capital 购买而来的。它拥有加拿大最完整的债券价格和表现数据库。其程序和数据分析主要针对机构客户，对个人投资者来说费用太高。然而，他们出色的网站 www.canadianbondindices.com 上提供了大量适合个人投资者的信息。它每日和历史性地展示了债券市场各个领域的表现，提供了各种政府和公司债券的实时价格以及成交量信息。他们并不提供订阅服务。
编译者注：PC Bond于2007年改名为DEX，所有债券指数都叫做DEX bond indices，接着FTSE和TMX成立了合作公司FTSE TMX Global Debt Capital Markets Limited，指数名字又改成了FTSE TMX Canada indexes，然后于2019年FTSE收购了FTSE TMX Global Debt Capital Markets Limited，所有指数 改成了FTSE Canada Fixed Income Indexes。查看这些指数，请去这个网址https://research.ftserussell.com/products/FTSETMX/Home/Indices。
CanPX is a joint venture of the primary dealers in Canada plus certain inter-dealer brokers. It provides a composite display of real-time bids and offerings on a variety of bonds. It is geared to the wholesale market, also, but their website offers hourly updates on the benchmark Government of Canada treasury bills and bonds. On a subscription basis, and only available through Gmarkets (www.gmarkets.ca) are two subscriptions: All governments for $125 per month and their corporate bonds for the same amount. I recommend the corporate bond subscription, as this is the most current list of corporate bonds available. In addition, GMarkets has their own product called Pilot, which is a comprehensive view of all aspects of the financial markets. It costs $485 per month but is well worth it.
CanPX 是加拿大主要做市商以及某些场间经纪商的合资企业。它提供各种债券的实时综合买卖报价。虽然它同样面向批发市场，但其网站提供每小时更新的加拿大政府短期债券和长期债券基准价格。通过Gmarkets（www.gmarkets.ca）提供的订阅服务中，有两种订阅方案：政府类债券每月$125，以及公司债券同样收费$125。我推荐订阅公司债券，因为这是目前可获取的最新公司债券清单。此外，GMarkets 还有一款名为 Pilot 的产品，提供全方位的金融市场信息。订阅费用为每月$485，但物有所值。
编译者注：CanPX仍然提供加拿大固定收益数据服务，但是gmarkets.ca不再存在。
Another excellent source for individual investors is the Bank of Canada's site: www.bankofcanada.ca.
对个人投资者来说，另一个优秀的信息来源是加拿大银行的网站：www.bankofcanada.ca。
One of the main reasons — if not the main one — why investors either do not know enough about fixed-income markets or are too timid to venture into them is the lack of transparency of this giant market. As we have discussed, there is no central location for the bond market. Instead, it operates on an over-the-counter, decentralized basis. There is no ticker tape showing trades as they take place, nor is it easy to obtain a quotation. In other words, most of the bond market is opaque, not transparent. Whether transparency is the proper word or not is debatable. Prices of the most liquid bonds, Government of Canadas, are highly visible and widely quoted on a number of websites (www.candeal.ca and canadianfixedincome.ca are two). I feature Perimeter CBID's live quotes on my website, www.inyourbestinterest.ca, and there are many provincial and corporate prices in addition to the benchmark Canadas. Of course, they represent a tiny percentage of all the bonds outstanding (some 60,000 issues) but at least it is a start. Regulators are pushing for more transparency and I am on a committee of IIROC that is exploring improvements in this area. By now, most clients can see the yields of the bonds that they have traded on their transaction statements. There is a strong push to reveal the commissions charged on each fixed-income transaction. Although most fellow committee members oppose this, I am in favour of it. Investors know how much they are charged for equity trades, so why would they not get to see how much they are paying for a bond trade? There really is not much to hide, as the fees charged on bond transactions are generally fair and do not vary significantly from equity commissions.
投资者对固定收益市场了解不足或缺乏胆量涉足的主要原因之一（如果不是唯一的原因的话）是这个巨大市场透明度不足。正如我们所讨论的，债券市场没有中心化的交易地点，而是以场外、去中心化的方式运作。没有像股票市场那样的电子滚动信息屏显示实时交易，也不容易获得报价。换句话说，大部分债券市场是不透明的，而非透明的。是否应该用“透明”这个词还有争议。流动性极高、被广泛引用的加拿大政府债券价格在许多网站上都能看到（例如www.candeal.ca和canadianfixedincome.ca是两个例子）。我在自己的网站www.inyourbestinterest.ca上展示了Perimeter CBID的实时报价，同时还显示了许多省级和公司债券的基准价格。当然，这些仅占所有在外流通债券（约60,000只）的一小部分，但总算是一个开始。监管机构正在推动提高透明度，我也加入了IIROC的一个委员会，正致力于在这一领域推动改进。到目前为止，大多数客户都可以在他们的交易对账单中看到交易债券的收益率。对于每笔固定收益交易所收取的佣金，也正有强烈的呼声要求公开。尽管大多数委员会其他成员反对这一做法，但我支持。投资者都知道股票交易所收取的费用，那么为什么债券交易的收费不能公开呢？其实没什么可隐瞒的，因为债券交易的费用普遍都很公平，而且与股票交易的佣金差异不大。
Policy 5 is a code of conduct for IDA member firms trading in wholesale domestic debt markets. It was developed at the behest of the Department of Finance and the Bank of Canada. Its purpose is to "ensure the integrity of Canadian debt markets and thereby to encourage liquidity, efficiency and the maintenance of active trading and lending and promote public confidence in such debt markets." You can read the entire policy at www.iiroc.ca.
政策5是针对在国内批发债务市场中进行交易的IDA会员公司的行为准则。该政策是在财政部和加拿大银行的要求下制定的，目的是“确保加拿大债务市场的诚信，从而促进流动性、效率，维持活跃的交易和借贷，并增强公众对债务市场的信心。”你可以在www.iiroc.ca上阅读完整的政策。
In recent years, Policy 5B was added. This was aimed directly at the retail fixed-income markets. It requires all investment dealers to have written policies and procedures in place for dealings with individual investors in the Canadian retail debt market. In particular, each investment dealer must have in place a recommended commission or markup for each fixed-income product that they trade. Such a grid would look like this.
| Term | Suggested Commission | Maximum Commission |
|---|---|---|
| Government Bonds | ||
| < 1 year | 0.1 | 0.2 |
| 1-2 years | 0.25 | 0.5 |
| 2-5 years | 0.5 | 1.0 |
| 5-10 years | 0.75 | 1.5 |
| 10+ years | 1.0 | 2.0 |
| Corporate Bonds | ||
| < 1 year | 0.1 | 0.2 |
| 1-2 years | 0.5 | 1.0 |
| 2-5 years | 0.75 | 1.5 |
| 5-10 years | 1.0 | 2.0 |
| 10+ years | 1.0 | 2.0 |
| Strips | ||
| < 1 year | 0.1 | 0.2 |
| 1-2 years | 0.5 | 0.75 |
| 2-5 years | 0.75 | 1.25 |
| 5-10 years | 0.75 | 1.75 |
| 10+ years | 1.0 | 1.75 |
| High-yield Bonds | 2.0 | 3.0 |
近年来，又增加了政策5B，直接针对零售固定收益市场。它要求所有投资交易商必须为与加拿大零售债券市场的个人投资者打交道制定书面政策和程序。特别是，每个投资交易商必须为他们交易的每类固定收益产品设定一个推荐佣金或加价标准。这样的一个表格可能如下所示。
While not generally available, you can ask for and expect to receive a copy of your FI's grid. At the very least, your IA should be able to tell you what the grid is. As you can see, these are fair commissions (generally, the longer the term, the higher the commissions). This is for two reasons. First, the longer the maturity the less the yield is affected for a given commission, and second, it rewards the IA, as most bonds, especially strips, are buy and hold securities.
虽然通常不会公开，但你可以要求并期望获得一份你所在金融机构的价格表。至少，你的投资顾问应该能告诉你这个价格表。正如你所见，这些都是合理的佣金（通常来说，期限越长，佣金会越高）。这有两个原因：首先，期限越长，对于固定的加价来说，收益率受影响越小；其次，它也能奖励投资顾问，因为大多数债券，尤其是分离债券，都是买入并持有型的产品。
Other proposals are being pushed forward that would require retail bond-trading desks to maintain records demonstrating that their dealing prices are fair. This is a long way from implementation, but it is clear that the push is on to ensure that the retail fixed-income investor will be assured of getting a fair shake.
还有其他一些提案正在推进，这些提案要求零售债券交易部门保存记录，以证明他们的交易价格是公平的。虽然这离真正实施还很遥远，但显然方向已经确定，要确保零售固定收益投资者能获得公平的待遇。
A huge hurdle facing bond market transparency has to do with the fact that IAs and their clients are captive to their firm's bond-trading desk. The Big Six - RBCDS, TD Securities, Scotia Capital, BMO Nesbitt, CIBCWM, and National Bank Financial — are loath to give up their monopoly and trade flow. I am positive that they will not do so unless legislation is enacted requiring them to participate in a commingled marketplace for bonds. It seems to me that if every dealer who wanted to could provide their bids and offerings to a centralized system, and also allow their clients access to the same system, that would solve the transparency debate once and for all. I am also positive that this is going to be snail-like in its progress, as the Big Six have nothing to gain from it; the whole retail fixed-income business is not a very high priority for them. Regulators do run the risk of imposing so many costs and rules on the investment dealers that the dealers will move their clients away from this already expensive business.
债券市场透明度面临的一个巨大障碍在于，投资顾问及其客户受制于其所在公司的债券交易部门。加拿大六大金融机构——RBCDS、TD Securities、Scotia Capital、BMO Nesbitt、CIBC Wood Gundy以及National Bank Financial——不愿放弃其垄断地位和交易流量。我确信，除非立法要求他们参与一个统一的债券集中交易市场，否则他们不会轻易改变现状。在我看来，如果每个愿意参与的交易商都能将他们的买卖报价提供给一个中央系统，并允许他们的客户使用同一系统，那么这一切将彻底解决透明度问题。不过，我也确信这一进程将进展缓慢，因为六大金融机构没有从中获利；毕竟，零售固定收益业务对他们来说并不是非常高优先级。监管机构也冒着给投资交易商强加过多成本和规则的风险，从而导致交易商将客户从这已经昂贵的业务中抽离出来。
The retail fixed-income business has shrunk dramatically as a percentage of investment dealers' revenues as a result of plummeting nominal yields and the surge in (alas) structured products. Sadly, these products (chronicled in the product chapter) are not created in your best interest, but rather are designed to put big fees into the hands of the investment banking groups and big commissions in the hands of the IAs. As I stress, to be a do-it-yourselfer in the world of bonds, you will need to find a knowledgeable IA with a large book of business such that he/she does not need to do a lot of transactions with you to make a living. Otherwise, and I have heard from many of you, you can open an online account with a discount broker. To assist you, I have conducted my own hands-on survey of the various online fixed-income suppliers, which you will find on page 58.
零售固定收益业务在投资交易商收入中的比例已因名义收益率大幅下降和（遗憾地）结构性产品的激增而急剧缩水。令人遗憾的是，这些产品（详见产品章节）并非为了符合你的最佳利益而设计，而是为了让投资银行部门获取高额费用，以及使投资顾问赚取高额佣金。如我所强调的，要在债券世界中自主管理投资，你需要找到一位知识渊博、客户账簿庞大的投资顾问，使其不必频繁交易就能维持生计。否则，正如很多人向我反映的那样，你可以选择与折扣经纪商在线开户。为此，我对各在线固定收益供应商进行了实地调查，相关结果请见第58页。
The investment dealers make their markets in bonds using their own capital, unlike the stock market, where most trades occur on an agency basis (buyer and seller meet and a transaction takes place without the investment dealer needing to use capital).
与股票市场不同，投资交易商使用自己的资本在债券市场上做市。股票市场的大部分交易是基于代理模式（买卖双方直接见面，交易无需投资交易商使用自有资本进行撮合）。
Why does this difference exist, and what is being done about it? First of all, the majority of the outstanding fixed-income issues do not trade every day, with the noticeable exception of the very liquid Government of Canada benchmark issues. The reason they do not trade more frequently is that a provincial government or a corporation issue bonds of various types, maturities, and amounts. Some issues end up being owned by a few large investing institutions, leaving no "float" (refer back to the TRP example on page 29) Others may be stripped and sold as zero coupon securities. Also, some issues are too small. Foreign investors may acquire a large percentage of an issue.
这种差别为什么存在？又采取了哪些应对措施？首先，大部分在外流通的固定收益产品并不每天交易，明显的例外是流动性很高的加拿大政府基准债券。它们不经常交易的原因在于，省级政府或公司会发行各种类型、到期日和规模的债券。有些债券最终被少数大型投资机构持有，从而没有“流通量”（参阅第29页的TRP例子）；有的债券可能被拆分出售为零息证券；还有一些产品规模过小；或者部分产品大比例被外国投资者收购。
Thus, quotations on almost all other bonds besides benchmarks are calculated on a matrix basis, where a certain bond is priced in relation to benchmark issue of a similar maturity. Otherwise, how would investors know what to pay for an illiquid bond? At the same time, the daily retail fixed-income transactions are estimated to number between 8,000 and 10,000, with an estimated face value of $700 million, perhaps 2 percent of the total market. This implies an average individual transaction size of approximately $70,000. With bond yields having fallen significantly in the past three years, retail transactions have fallen as indicated. They were approximately 5 percent of the market in 2008. These trades all happen privately, as each investment dealer has its own private electronic delivery system for providing bids and offerings on a complete spectrum of fixed-income instruments to its IAs and then to their customers. Discount brokers display offerings in a similar fashion, providing online tools to assist investors in selecting issues, building ladders, and calculating yields. Each system is different, and there is no public display of the trades.
因此，除了基准债券外，几乎所有其他债券的报价都是基于矩阵方法，即根据类似到期日的基准产品对某只债券进行定价。否则，投资者怎么知道该为一只不活跃的债券支付多少呢？同时，据估计，日常零售固定收益交易数量在8,000到10,000笔之间，总面值大约为7亿加元，占总市场的2%左右。这意味着平均每笔交易的金额大约为7万加元。随着过去三年债券收益率显著下降，零售交易数量也随之减少。据估计，2008年这些交易曾约占市场的5%。所有交易均以私下方式进行，因为每个投资交易商都有自己的内部电子传送系统，向其投资顾问及其客户提供全系列固定收益产品的买卖报价。折扣经纪商也以类似方式展示报价，提供在线工具，帮助投资者选择产品、建立阶梯投资组合和计算收益。每个系统各不相同，没有公开的交易展示。
In the meantime, a company called Perimeter CBID, mentioned earlier, has developed and introduced a fixed-income system that features several contributors showing retail bids and offerings to a growing list of smaller investment dealers. While it offers good software and reasonable offerings, it has one weakness: it does not have all the major liquidity providers. These dealers see no reason to provide liquidity to CBID, and remain content to distribute their fixed-income products internally to their captive sales forces.
与此同时，前面提到的Perimeter CBID公司已开发并推出了一个固定收益系统，该系统由几位提供者显示零售买卖报价，并为越来越多的小型投资交易商服务。虽然它提供了优秀的软件和合理的报价，但也有一个弱点：它不包含所有主要的流动性提供者。这些交易商觉得没有必要为CBID提供流动性，而满足于内部为自有销售团队提供固定收益产品。
There are more than 200 IIROC members and only 12 or so retail-oriented trading desks to service them all. What are the Big Six doing? For one, they created a company called CanDeal, which exists to make markets electronically in the most active Government of Canada issues, but only for institutional customers. There are 12 liquidity providers, the primary dealers for the Bank of Canada and the best market-makers for bonds in Canada. CanDeal was modelled after a company called TradeWeb in the United States that is now trading approximately $300 billion of fixed-income securities and related products daily online. Recently, the Toronto Stock Exchange made a $20 million investment in CanDeal, signifying its interest in this business and perhaps staking out a possible future role as central consolidator for the fixed-income business.
加拿大有超过200个IIROC会员，但只有大约12个零售导向的交易部门来为他们提供服务。那么六大金融机构在做什么呢？首先，他们成立了一家名为CanDeal的公司，该公司旨在为最活跃的加拿大政府债券提供电子做市服务，但仅限机构客户使用。有12家流动性提供者，即加拿大银行的主要做市商和最优秀的债券市场商。CanDeal的模式借鉴了美国一家名为TradeWeb的公司，该公司目前每天在线交易大约3000亿加元的固定收益证券及相关产品。最近，多伦多证券交易所向CanDeal投资了2000万加元，显示出其对这一业务的兴趣，并可能为未来在固定收益业务中充当中央整合者奠定基础。
Where is this going? In the huge American market, only a handful of electronic bond-trading platforms remain after there were once more than a hundred. Only two are profitable.
这一切将走向何方？在庞大的美国市场中，曾经有超过一百个电子债券交易平台，而如今仅存几个，其中只有两个是盈利的。
In Canada, it is hard to imagine more than one system surviving in each of the institutional and retail spaces. It is equally difficult to imagine why the Big Six would want to give up their private monopoly over their own sales forces and clients. Gradually, inexorably, some veils will be lifted, but there will be stout resistance from institutional bond traders, loath to share any trade information with rivals. There is a system in the United States called TRACE (the Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine for corporate bond transactions). It broadcasts, with a delay, the last sale price and other relevant trade data for U.S.-dollar-denominated, investment-grade, and high-yield corporate bonds. The delay was at the behest of the major investment dealers, who argued that immediate dissemination of corporate bond trades would put them at a competitive disadvantage. The bank-owned dealers are advancing the same argument in Canada. Nevertheless, there is enough pressure emanating from the regulators to make this happen eventually.
在加拿大，很难想象在机构和零售领域中各能存活下来的系统超过一个。同样，很难理解为什么六大金融机构会愿意放弃他们在自有销售团队和客户中的私有垄断。逐渐地、不可避免地，一些面纱将被揭开，但机构债券交易员会极力抵制与竞争对手分享任何交易信息。美国有一套称为TRACE（用于企业债券交易的交易报告与合规引擎）的系统，它会延迟播报加元计价的投资级和高收益公司债券的最后成交价格以及其他相关交易数据。这一延迟正是应主要投资交易商的要求，他们认为即时公布公司债券交易会使他们处于竞争劣势。加拿大的银行拥有交易部门也在提出相同的论调。然而，监管机构施加的压力足以使这一切最终实现。
Transparency is a long way off, but retail investors will have more choices and more tools.
虽然实现完全透明还遥遥无期，但零售投资者将拥有更多选择和工具。
Where do I stand on this? I am in favour of greater transparency for individual investors in fixed-income securities for the simple reason that the more investors can see a market, the more they will trade in it. As a trader, that means more trading volume and that is a good thing! I also think some sort of post-trading reporting system showing at what prices bonds actually traded would help lift at least one veil from this over-the-counter market. In other words, the more information that is made available on prices and quantities of bonds, the better able the investors will be to make a decision. An open market reflects the divergent valuations of the participants, and the larger the number of competitors with market knowledge, the greater the chance that both buyers and sellers will get the best price possible.
我个人对此持何立场？我赞成提高个人投资者对固定收益证券市场的透明度，原因很简单：投资者越能看到市场，他们就越愿意交易。对交易员来说，这意味着更多的交易量，而这是一件好事！我还认为，建立某种交易后报告系统，展示债券实际成交价格，将有助于揭开这一场外市场的一角。换句话说，提供关于债券价格和数量的更多信息，将使投资者更有能力做出决策。一个开放的市场反映了参与者不同的估值，而参与市场竞争者越多，无论是买方还是卖方，都越有可能获得最佳价格。
Much of the pressure to reveal more has to do with markups and commissions. Let us first re-examine the process. The major investment dealers maintain extensive inventories, using their own capital to do so. They incur hedging costs to minimize risk, make large investments in market-making systems, communications, and back-office infrastructure. There are spread risks, yield curve risks, and credit risks. This helps explain why there is a spread between the bid and the ask sides of a market, with that spread representing the risks associated with bidding for that particular bond. For example, when bidding for an obscure corporate bond, traders must take into account its credit rating and the likelihood of finding a buyer for it. They may own it for months, and the bid will reflect that. Conversely, bidding on an actively traded Canada issue is simple because they know they can sell it right away.
对加价和佣金的讨论主要围绕以下过程。主要投资交易商使用自有资本维持着大量库存。他们需要承担套期保值成本以降低风险，为市场做市系统、通讯和后台基础设施进行大量投资。存在价差风险、收益率曲线风险和信用风险。这些都解释了为什么市场的买卖价之间存在一定的价差，而这个差额就代表了投标该债券所承担的风险。例如，当为一只不常见的公司债投标时，交易员必须考虑其信用评级以及找到买家的可能性。也可能需要持有几个月，这就会反映在投标价上；相反，为一只活跃交易的加拿大国债投标则较为简单，因为他们知道可以立刻出售。
When it comes to the retail offering of bonds, each trader takes all of these risks into account and offers the inventory to the sales force at what is called the transfer price, which is the price at which the trader will transfer the bond to the IAs. There is no commission built in; this is merely the traders ask price. As this is a principal market, the IAs need to add a markup to this price to earn a commission. It is this markup that is the hot button for the regulators. Investors see how much commission they pay when trading equities, but not so when buying fixed-income securities (including GICs). Investors pay a 1 to 1.25 percent commission when buying a five-year GIC.
在零售债券报价方面，每个交易员都会考虑所有这些风险，并将库存以所谓的转移价格提供给销售团队，即交易员将债券转移给投资顾问时的价格。这个价格本身不包含佣金；它仅仅是交易员的要价。由于这是一个自营市场，投资顾问需要在此基础上加上一个加价来赚取佣金。正是这种加价成为监管机构关注的焦点。投资者可以在进行股票交易时看到所支付的佣金，但是在购买固定收益证券（包括GIC）时却看不到。购买一只五年期GIC时，投资者通常需支付1%到1.25%的佣金。
ONLINE TRADING SURVEY
在线交易调查
Since publishing the second edition, I have continued to receive emails from individuals with respect to online bond trading. The biggest concern is the availability of products. Frequently, when on the Business News Network (BNN), I will recommend certain bonds, usually corporate bonds. These are bonds that are normally available to my firm, Odlum Brown, and which I regard as relatively easy to obtain. It turns out that most of the online investment dealers do not, in fact, offer as extensive a supply of bonds as Odlum Brown is accustomed to seeing on a daily basis. This is being rectified and much broader offerings of bonds should be available in the not too distant future.
自第二版出版以来，我不断收到关于在线债券交易的邮件。最大的问题是产品的可获得性。通常，在商业新闻网络（BNN）上，我会推荐某些债券，通常是公司债券。这些债券通常可在我所在的公司Odlum Brown买到，而我也认为这些债券相对容易获得。事实证明，大多数在线投资交易商实际上并没有提供像Odlum Brown那样丰富的债券品种。这一情况正在改善，不久的将来应该会提供更广泛的债券选择。
There has been a significant change in the online bond trading space. The Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) bought e*Trade Canada in the fall of 2008 and, with much ballyhoo, launched Scotia iTrade Canada in early 2009. They claimed to have made a huge breakthrough in the bond space with their "buck a bond" policy. With a minimum commission of $20 (a purchase of $20,000 face value) and a maximum of $250, iTrade claimed to have made a breakthrough in transparency by actually revealing the commission on the contract. They also said that they were using multiple providers of bond offerings with more than 2,300 issues available. It was clear that BNS had to do something, as the Scotia Online product came last in my previous survey.
在线债券交易领域已经发生了重大变化。2008年秋，加拿大丰业银行（BNS）收购了e*Trade Canada，并于2009年初以极大的宣传推出了Scotia iTrade Canada。他们声称“每债一块”（buck a bond）政策在债券领域取得了突破。最低佣金为20加元（对应面值2万加元的交易），最高不超过250加元，iTrade声称通过实际公开合约佣金，实现了透明度的突破。他们还表示，采用了多个债券供应商，提供超过2300只债券。显然，BNS必须做点什么，因为在我之前的调查中，Scotia Online产品排名末位。
Besides iTrade, I was able to survey the online offerings of TD Waterhouse (TDW), BMO Investorline, and RBC Direct Investing. CIBC was unwilling to participate and so was National Bank Financial. I tried without success to see what Questrade had to offer.
除了iTrade，我还调查了TD Waterhouse（TDW）、BMO Investorline和RBC Direct Investing的在线产品。CIBC和National Bank Financial均不愿参与，我也未能成功调查Questrade的产品。
For the four firms which I surveyed, I was able to pose as an individual investor, using a dummy account but in a live trading environment.
对于我调查的这四家公司，我都以个人投资者的身份进行体验，使用了模拟账户，但交易是在真实交易环境中进行的。
The results follow in a table, but I will say at the outset that the clear leader here is TDW, which combined very good pricing with ease of use and decent availability of inventory. In addition, they offer the tools for an individual to build his own ladder easily.
| |
TDW | RBC | BMO | iTRADE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ease of Use (1–10) | 8 | 8 | 6 | 6 |
| Inventory Breadth | 7 | 9 | 8 | 9 |
| Pricing | 9 | 7 | 6 | 8 |
| Tools | 7 | 8 | 6 | 9 |
调查结果以表格形式展示，但我首先要说明的是，这四家公司中，TDW无疑是领先者，它将良好的定价与易用性以及足够的产品库存结合在一起。此外，他们还为个人投资者提供了便捷建立债券阶梯的工具。
Notes: TDW is the only one to show a bid side for bond prices; for all the others, you must phone a representative for a bid or have the bond in your account to get a bid online. This seems reasonable except that when buying a bond, it is useful for investors to see what the bid is. iTrade has the best combination of educational materials and research. TDW is the only one which offers investors the ability to build their own ladders.
说明：TDW是唯一能在债券价格中显示买入报价的一家；其他所有平台都必须通过电话联系代表才能获得买入报价，或者只有当债券已在你的账户中时才能在网上看到买入报价。这看起来合理，但在购买债券时，了解买入报价对投资者来说非常有用。iTrade在教育材料和研究方面的组合最为出色。TDW则是唯一允许投资者建立自己阶梯投资组合的平台。
Specific Pricing Comparisons: As you review these, remember that I was able to compare each dealer's prices at exactly the same time as I could see the prices in the wholesale market, so the results are accurate in measuring their spreads from the base price.
| TDW | BMO | iTRADE | RBC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canadas (3 years) | 0.39 | 0.48 | 0.20 | 0.53 |
| Provincials (10 years) | 0.81 | 1.13 | 0.20 | 1.00 |
| Corporates (7 years) | 0.55 | 3.50 | 0.83 | 0.66 |
| Strips (6 years) | 0.53 | 1.73 | 0.42 | 0.65 |
具体定价比较：当你查阅这些数据时，请记住，我是在与批发市场报价同时比较各交易商的价格，因此结果在反映他们与基准价格之间的价差方面是准确的。
It is important to note that i Trades prices do not include the "buck a bond" commission. Thus for a trade of $50,000, an additional $50 would be added to the total purchase cost. This would have the effect of raising the price and lowering the yield
需要注意的是，iTrade的价格不包括“每债一块”佣金。因此对于一笔5万加元的交易，还会另外增加50加元，从而使总购买成本上升，收益率降低。
I did not include money market pricing as not all the dealers offered Bills and BAs, and the ones that did charged ridiculous spreads.
我没有包括货币市场的定价，因为并非所有经纪商都提供国库券和BA产品，而提供这些产品的经纪商往往收取异常高的价差。
OTHER COMMENTS
其他评论
iTrade has excellent breadth of product but has some idiosyncrasies in its corporate bond prices. It is my understanding that they blend the offerings from Scotiabond's fixed-income trading desk with those of Perimeter CBID. This does result in a broad suite of offerings. Trades search function was very awkward to use.
iTrade的产品种类非常齐全，但其公司债券价格存在一些特例。据我了解，他们将Scotiabond固定收益交易部门的报价与Perimeter CBID的报价进行了混合。这确实带来了较为广泛的产品选择。不过，其交易搜索功能使用起来非常别扭。
As noted, TDW is relatively weak in the product breadth category, displaying a total of 436 different issues. TDW is planning to rectify this with a new fixed-income platform that will not only include a broader suite of bonds but which will offer several new features, including an enhanced search facility, the ability to save searches for future reference, and the addition of U.S.-denominated securities. As well as having the ability to create laddered portfolios, TDW's new platform will allow investors to add bonds from their saved searches to other portfolios.
如前所述，TDW在产品种类上相对薄弱，总共显示436只不同的债券。TDW计划通过一个全新的固定收益平台来改善这一情况，该平台不仅将包含更多种类的债券，还会提供几项新功能，包括增强的搜索功能、保存搜索记录供日后参考的能力，以及添加加元计价证券的功能。除了能创建阶梯组合外，TDW的新平台还允许投资者将其保存的搜索结果中的债券添加到其他投资组合中。
The other specific advice I have is, if you do not see the bond which you are looking for, phone the investment dealer and ask. Each of these firms told me that they were prepared to search for the specific bonds in questions on demand.
我的另一个具体建议是：如果你没有看到自己要找的债券，请拨打投资交易商的电话询问。每家这些公司都告诉我，他们愿意按需为你寻找特定的债券。
My opinion on this, after managing retail fixed-income trading desks for 22 years, is that most fixed-income trades are done with fair markups. There have been - and no doubt still are - some rogue IAs who take excessive markups, but they are the exception. Every investment dealer has internal guidelines for markups and offenders are penalized. The marketplace enforces discipline, as it is possible to check prices with other dealers. Each investment dealer generates an up-to-date list of transfer prices on a complete spectrum of fixed-income instruments. These prices are not much different in practice from one fixed-income trading desk to the next. The different prices that clients pay for the securities arise mostly from the different markups charged by IAs.
以我管理零售固定收益交易部门22年的经验来看，我认为大多数固定收益交易的加价都很合理。虽然也存在——无疑至今仍有——一些个别投资顾问采取过高加价的情况，但这只是个别现象。每个投资交易商都有内部的加价指导方针，对违规者也会进行处罚。市场竞争会迫使交易商保持纪律，因为可以与其他交易商对比价格。每个投资交易商都会生成一份涵盖全系列固定收益产品的最新转移价格清单。这些价格在实际操作中各个交易部门之间差别并不大。客户为证券支付的不同价格主要源于各投资顾问收取的不同加价。
Let us go through an example. Assume an investor wishes to buy $100,000 of the Province of British Columbia 3.70 percent bond of December 18, 2020. The transfer price is $101.31 for a yield to maturity of 3.54 percent (as of July 13, 2011):
让我们通过一个例子来说明。假设一位投资者希望购买面值为10万加元的、不列颠哥伦比亚省3.70%债券，其到期日为2020年12月18日。该债券的转移价格为101.31加元，对应到期收益率为3.54%（截至2011年7月13日）：
Transfer Price: $101.31
Yield: 3.54 percent
Markup: $1.00
Total price to client: $102.31
Yield: 3.41 percent
Amount client pays: $100,000 * 1.0231 = $102,310.00
(expressed another way, the client is buying one hundred $1,000 bonds priced at $1,021.31 each)
Transfer cost to IA: 100,000 * 1.0131 = $101,310
IA's commission: $1,000, or almost 1 percent
转移价格：101.31加元
收益率：3.54%
加价：1.00加元
客户总价：102.31加元
收益率：3.41%
客户支付金额：100,000加元 * 1.0231 = 102,310.00加元
(换句话说，客户购买的是一百张面值1,000加元的债券，每张价格为1,021.31加元)
投资顾问转移成本：100,000加元 * 1.0131 = 101,310加元
投资顾问佣金：1,000加元，约为1%
This is a typical commission for such a bond. (Please note that these calculations do not apply for fee-based accounts.) At shorter maturities, the yield is affected more for a given markup, so markups are typically lower for, say, one- to five-year maturities than they are for the longer maturities. Also, markups typically become smaller as the size of the transaction increases. My recommendation for an investor with a large sum of money to invest is to ask two or more investment dealers for competitive offerings. Knowing this, the IAs at these firms will reduce the markup in order to win the transaction. On a trade of $250,000, a markup of 0.25 percent would be typical, for a gross commission of $625.
这对于这种债券来说是一个典型的佣金水平。（请注意，这些计算不适用于基于费用的账户。）在较短的期限内，固定的加价对收益率的影响更大，因此对于一到五年期的债券，加价通常会比长期债券低。并且，随着交易规模的增大，加价通常会相应减小。我的建议是，对于一位拥有大额资金的投资者，应向两个或更多的投资交易商咨询具有竞争力的报价。了解这一点后，这些金融机构的投资顾问通常会降低加价以争取成交。例如，对于一笔250,000加元的交易，通常加价为0.25%，对应的总佣金为625加元。
Let us now consider stripped or zero coupon bonds. They are a rarity in the investment business, as they are excellent products for retirement planning while they offer higher percentage markups for IAs. Let us assume that the same $100,000 was going to be invested in an Ontario stripped bond of a similar maturity. The transfer price on the Ontario O percent December 2, 2020, at a yield of 3.81 percent, is $70.19.
现在，我们再考虑一下分离债券或零息债券。这类债券在投资业务中较为少见，因为它们是非常适合退休规划的产品，同时对投资顾问来说会收取更高比例的加价。假设同样的10万加元将投资于一只类似到期日的安大略省零息债券。安大略省0%债券（到期日为2020年12月2日，收益率为3.81%）的转移价格为70.19加元。
Transfer price: $70.19
Field: 3.81 percent
Markup: $1.00
Price to client: $71.19
Yield: 3.66 percent
Amount client buys: $100,000 /.7119 = $140,469
Transfer cost to IA: $140,469 *,7019 = $98,266
Amount client pays: $140,469 *7119 = $100,000
IA's commission: $1,734.00 or 1.7 percent
转移价格：70.19加元
收益率：3.81%
加价：1.00加元
客户价格：71.19加元
收益率：3.66%
客户购买金额：100,000加元 / 0.7119 = 140,469加元
投资顾问转移成本：140,469加元 * 0.7019 ≈ 98,266加元
客户支付金额：140,469加元 * 0.7119 = 100,000加元
投资顾问佣金：1,734.00加元，约为1.7%
Again, this is a typical markup and is common throughout the business. It is not an outrageous amount, especially when you consider this is a one-time fee for what most likely will be a buy and hold situation. In any event, these fees are in line with what IAs charge for equity transactions, in the region of 1 to 2 percent.
同样，这也是一个典型的加价，这在整个行业中都很常见。这并不是一个荒谬的收费数额，特别是当你考虑到这通常是一次性的费用，而大多数情况下都是买入后持有的策略。无论如何，这些费用与投资顾问在股票交易中所收取的1%到2%的水平相当。
Remember, GIC investors also pay a markup, as the issuing agents pay the investment dealers $1 to $1.25 at the five-year maturity.
记住，购买GIC时投资者也需要支付加价，因为发行代理商会在五年期到期时支付给投资交易商1到1.25加元。
The hue and cry over fixed-income market markups is somewhat misguided. This is a self-policing business and a competitive one. I think it is reasonable for IAs to make a living. Investors may ensure that they are obtaining fair prices by opening accounts at more than one investment dealer or at a discount broker. Investors are advised to obtain competitive quotations, especially for large transactions, say over $100,000. IAs who repeatedly attempt to overcharge will find their business declining. It is very useful to have an online trading account with a discount broker as it is easy to transact your own bonds.
对于固定收益市场的加价抱怨有些言过其实。这是一个自我监管且竞争激烈的业务。我认为投资顾问赚取生活费用是合理的。投资者可以通过在不同的金融机构或折扣经纪商处开立至少两个账户，来确保自己获得公平价格。特别是对于超过100,000加元的大额交易，建议投资者获取竞争性的报价。那些反复试图收取过高费用的投资顾问，会发现他们的生意逐渐下降。有一个在线交易账户（例如在折扣经纪商那里）非常有用，因为这样你可以轻松地自主交易债券。
On balance, individual investors do not pay unfair markups, as the self-policing nature of the business ensures fair pricing. Having at least two accounts at separate FIs will ensure favourable pricing, especially when you have one with an IA at a full-service firm. When contemplating a fixed-income transaction, let your Is know that you are requesting at least one other quotation. This keeps them on their toes and they may consider lowering their markups. Should you not do this, it is standard behaviour for an IA and an FI to take advantage of a monopolistic situation. Individual investors can now keep track of a selection of real-time bond prices at www.canadianfixedincome.ca, www. canadianbondindices.com, or at canpxonline.ca.
总体来看，个人投资者并没有支付不合理的加价，因为该行业的自我监管确保了价格的公平性。在两个以上金融机构保持账户能确保你获得更优惠的定价，尤其是当其中一个账户是通过全方位服务机构的投资顾问管理时。在进行固定收益交易时，告知你的投资顾问你正在寻求至少一个其他报价，这会让他们保持警惕，可能会考虑降低加价。如果你不这样做，那么投资顾问和金融机构利用其垄断地位是标准的做法。个人投资者现在可以通过 www.canadianfixedincome.ca、www.canadianbondindices.com 或 canpxonline.ca 来跟踪部分实时债券价格。
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