Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial

Discussion of the Bond portion of the Permanent Portfolio

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hoost
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Re: No bonds listed at Vanguard?

Post by hoost » Wed Mar 28, 2012 11:01 am

MikeK wrote:
hoost wrote: I had the same issue when I first tried searching for bonds with Vanguard.  What time/day were you performing the search?  I found that results only show up if you search while the market is open.  At least, after getting no results the first time (on a Sunday afternoon), I went back in on Monday morning and was able to get results.

I hope that helps.
Yep, you are exactly right!  Just did a search and I got a few hits.  Now, just need to figure out how to understand the results.....

mike
I used the quick searches on the left hand sidebar.  Choose secondary treasury.  Then Bonds, 15 to 30 year.  They're sorted by maturity descending (at least for me).  The longest right now is 2/15/2042; it says min qty is 100, but I bought 6 last week and didn't have any issues.  Click buy on the left side and it will take you into the buying menu; should be straight-forward from there if I recall.

rgds,

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Re: Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial

Post by l82start » Wed Mar 28, 2012 1:05 pm

just had a broker talk me through my first vanguard bond purchase, it was pretty easy and fairly self explanatory.. 

we did have a small glitch on date's, bonds close in one day, TLT sales take two... but since the broker was the one guiding me he fixed it on his end,
i will see if i remember the steps easily when i repeat the process for another account over the next few days..
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Re: Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial

Post by Reub » Thu Apr 12, 2012 11:36 am

I just purchased my first direct LT treasuries through Vanguard. However, I sold TLT to do it. Will this be a problem if the TLT sale settles in 2 days and the LT bonds settle in 1 day?

Thanks to everyone for the great advice on accomplishing this transaction!
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Re: Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial

Post by l82start » Thu Apr 12, 2012 11:47 am

yes this is the exact problem/glitch i had, fortunately because i was being "walked through" the buying process by a customer service rep and he didn't spot the problem before we hit buy (his error not mine),  he was able to make a internal call and get the buy covered with credit some how....   when i made my second purchase (i remembered the steps just fine ) i waited the extra day to give the TLT sale time to close.

you may want to make a phone call and make sure the sell/buy are going to happen and not be canceled, i don't know what happens or what the SOP for dealing with this are, i bet it happens often enough that they will have some kind of policy for dealing with it...
Last edited by l82start on Thu Apr 12, 2012 11:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial

Post by foglifter » Thu Apr 12, 2012 12:01 pm

Reub wrote: I just purchased my first direct LT treasuries through Vanguard. However, I sold TLT to do it. Will this be a problem if the TLT sale settles in 2 days and the LT bonds settle in 1 day?

Thanks to everyone for the great advice on accomplishing this transaction!
This is one of the areas where Fidelity shines. I sold TLT and bought the bond without any worries.
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Re: Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial

Post by Reub » Thu Apr 12, 2012 12:03 pm

I just called them and they were very helpful. They told me that if I sell the TLT before purchasing the Treasury bonds then my account will show a credit and allow the purchase even though the sale will settle after the purchase does.
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Re: Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial

Post by l82start » Thu Apr 12, 2012 12:11 pm

glad it worked out to be a smooth trade,  i had a feeling it was a common situation that they would have a way to deal with....  i like vanguards customer service, they seem to try to make it as easy as possible...
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Re: Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial

Post by dualstow » Thu Apr 12, 2012 12:51 pm

I bought a "decimal dozen" (seriously, what's the word for ten of something?) of 10-YR treasuries for my vP and that executed yesterday. Very different from Fidelity. The only reason I know the CUSIP is because I'd saved a screenshot when I put in my non-competitive bid in the auction.

I, too, had recently sold something that hadn't settled before the treasury order executed. But, when you trade with Vanguard, you can always see how much is available to trade.
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Re: Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial

Post by Reub » Fri Apr 13, 2012 4:16 pm

OK. I purchased the 2042-02-15 with semi-annual payments in Feb. and Aug. Does this mean that I should sell in 2032 right after a semi-annual repayment and then purchase a new 30 yr bond at that time?
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Re: Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial

Post by hoost » Fri Apr 13, 2012 4:28 pm

You'll want to sell in 2022, as at that point the bond would have 20 yrs left on it.  If you wait until 2032 it will only have 10 years remaining.
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Re: Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial

Post by Tortoise » Sat Apr 14, 2012 1:26 am

Also, Reub, it doesn't matter when you sell the bond within a given year. Immediately after a coupon payment, the market price of the bond simply drops by roughly the amount of the coupon payment.
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Re: Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial

Post by Greg » Wed May 23, 2012 10:05 am

Anyone know for Fidelity if you were to purchase 10 $1000 face value 30 year bonds and then want to sell, can you sell just 5 of those original 10 or do you have to sell all 10?
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Re: Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial

Post by dualstow » Wed May 23, 2012 10:17 am

1NV3ST0R wrote: Anyone know for Fidelity if you were to purchase 10 $1000 face value 30 year bonds and then want to sell, can you sell just 5 of those original 10 or do you have to sell all 10?
Although I've never sold any, I would think you could sell 5. After all, (unlike Vanguard) Fidelity does let one buy fewer than 10.
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Re: Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial

Post by hoost » Wed May 23, 2012 10:19 am

Vanguard also let's you buy fewer than 10.  I think the price goes up slightly though.  I'm not sure how their prices/internal markups are relative to Fidelity, I bought six bonds a couple months ago with no issues.
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Re: Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial

Post by Greg » Wed May 23, 2012 10:41 am

I'll have to call Fidelity and see what they say. Perhaps it is like tax lots with ETFs/Stocks where you can pick and choose how much of each lot to sell.
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Re: Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial

Post by foglifter » Wed May 23, 2012 11:58 am

1NV3ST0R wrote: Anyone know for Fidelity if you were to purchase 10 $1000 face value 30 year bonds and then want to sell, can you sell just 5 of those original 10 or do you have to sell all 10?
I just checked - yes, you can sell even 1 bond.
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Re: Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial

Post by Greg » Wed May 23, 2012 12:55 pm

Thanks foglifter. That keeps me from having to talk to people. I can now resume my hermit lifestyle.
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Re: Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial

Post by moda0306 » Wed May 23, 2012 12:57 pm

1NV3ST0R,

Who's that a picture of?
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Re: Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial

Post by Greg » Wed May 23, 2012 1:05 pm

moda,

That's a picture of Frédéric Bastiat. Really cool 19th century french dude who helped to develop the economic term of "opportunity cost". He's got a really good little book called "The Law" which I really liked. I initially heard about him from a Ron Paul debate where the moderator asked him if he could recommend one book to read what would it be.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Law_%281849_book%29

Moda, I could ask the same question about what your picture is of.
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Re: Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial

Post by Xan » Wed May 23, 2012 1:12 pm

I am a big Bastiat fan myself.  Not so much a fan of Matthew Lesko though.
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Re: Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial

Post by moda0306 » Wed May 23, 2012 1:18 pm

1NV3ST0R,

It's a picture of that ridiculous guy who schemes government programs to get people money and writes books about it.  I tend to scheme the tax code for tax avoidance/deferral strategies (legal, of course).
"Men did not make the earth. It is the value of the improvements only, and not the earth itself, that is individual property. Every proprietor owes to the community a ground rent for the land which he holds."

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Re: Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial

Post by Greg » Wed May 23, 2012 1:26 pm

I wouldn't say to "scheme the tax code", just "intelligently utilizing resources for maximum monetary gain". It's obviously much easier to say that way. (sarcasm ensues)
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Re: Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial

Post by moda0306 » Wed May 23, 2012 1:29 pm

I use "scheme" around people I know won't use it against me.  People here hate taxes enough that it earns me more respect than scorn.
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Re: Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial

Post by Greg » Wed May 23, 2012 2:31 pm

Gotcha. Yay respect.

On the non-tangent of this particular thread, I'll probably be purchasing 30 year bonds in a taxable account sometime this week. I won't have my Roth IRA until July and when I get it I'll just add more 30 year bonds into there as well up to the maximum.
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Re: Treasury Bond Buying Tutorial

Post by moda0306 » Wed May 23, 2012 2:34 pm

Since rates are only at 2.8%, I'll hesitate from my usual lecture about not placing LTT's in a taxable account if you can avoid it :).
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