How to Buy Individual Bonds

Marvin Appel

If you want to buy a bond, you need to go to a broker. Most of the well-known stockbrokers (Schwab, T.D. Ameritrade, and so on) can sell you individual bonds. To buy bonds, you first need to open an account at a broker and deposit sufficient funds to pay for the investments you plan to make.

Once the account is open and funded, you can go shopping. Retail brokerages usually display the list of available bonds on their Web site. You can peruse the available selection. If you see the same bond offered on a broker’s Web site for different prices, it means that there is more than one firm trying to sell the same bonds.

In addition to the coupon yield, maturity date, and price, you can also get the credit rating ...