Which broker offers the widest range of bonds (govt and corporate)

simon_or

I've only ever invested in index funds, ETFs and a few individual shares.

I'm probably late to the party but given the yields available now, I'm considering investing in individual bonds that I can potentially hold to maturity.

Which large broker offers the widest range of bonds (govt and corporate) on their platform?

Doctor_Who

simon_or said:

I've only ever invested in index funds, ETFs and a few individual shares.

I'm probably late to the party but given the yields available now, I'm considering investing in individual bonds that I can potentially hold to maturity.

Which broker offers the widest range of bonds (govt and corporate) on their platform?

I've bought gilts through Interactive Investor, they list their 'top 20' here (although I'm sure they offer a lot more). Whole process was as easy as buying shares/ETFs etc.

aroominyork

You're not late you the party. Short term gilt yields are significantly better than three months ago. 

simon_or

aroominyork said:

You're not late you the party. Short term gilt yields are significantly better than three months ago. 

Cheers. What got me looking into this was that I've been seeing lots of articles over the past couple of weeks talking about how bonds are a no-brainer at these yields and so I kind of assumed that most of the potential upside would perhaps already be priced in. 

aroominyork

I have observed that supply/demand does not affect the mid-price of gilts. They respond to base rate changes/predictions, and if rates and therefore yields keep rising, the price of gilts keeps falling. Around the time of the Truss/Kwarteng fiasco the spread widened which, I guess, is how gilt liquidity is managed.

simon_or

That's interesting, I guess you can't think of it in the same way as an equity investment. Definitely need to read up more on bonds.

Richard1212

I use Hargreaves Lansdown if that is of any help to you. All the best----and I agree with others : you have not missed the boat.

Linton

simon_or said:

That's interesting, I guess you can't think of it in the same way as an equity investment. Definitely need to read up more on bonds.

Correct, safe government bonds behave very differently to equities.  Equity prices are very open to sentiment, guesswork, and accurate or inaccurate news.  The correct price of a given bond on the other hand can be calculated almost exactly from a knowledge of current interest rates, it is driven by the mathematics. This is possible because the price at a specific future date, maturity, is known exactly as is the vaue of all future interest payments.  Equity investors sadly cannot have this knowledge.

Higher risk corporate bonds behave more like equities because it is not known whether the issuing company will actually survive until maturity and so their prices are less dependent on the future guarantee.

Linton

Some platforms only offer a limited selection of bonds online but if not available on line may be bought on the phone at the online charge.

TheGreenFrog

simon_or said:

Which large broker offers the widest range of bonds (govt and corporate) on their platform?

Interactive Brokers has huge range of government and corporate bonds.  But no gilts for reasons that are unclear.

Doctor_Who

TheGreenFrog said:

simon_or said:

Which large broker offers the widest range of bonds (govt and corporate) on their platform?

Interactive Brokers has huge range of government and corporate bonds.  But no gilts for reasons that are unclear.

Gilts are government bonds:

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/gilts.asp#:~:text=Gilts are government bonds in,issued by the British government.