17 Ripe
America's bond markets are due for scrutiny1--and competition
CURIOUSLY2, bonds were the first products traded on the New York Stock Exchange back in 1792. It took the exchange 30 years to put the stock in its name. The exchange lost any significant stake in the bond business generations ago. Now, though, caught in a war over the cosplayt of trading shares, the NYSE quite rightly is looking at other markets with fatter spreads. And its attention has settled on old haunts. It has begun talks with the Securities and Exchange Commission over permission to trade thousands of unlisted corporate3 bonds.
The obvious attraction of the bond market is its size: some $10 trillion-worth of corporate bonds traded in 2003, a quarter more than the trading volume on the NYSE. And yet the bond market's size and maturity4 ought to mean that there are no rich pickings left. It has been hard, though, to tell how efficient bond markets are. In contrast to equities5, information on the price of dealing6 in bonds has been scarce.
That began to change two years ago when the National Association of Securities Dealers7 began collecting transaction prices. This month the SEC released a study, based on these data, by its own Amy Edwards and Michael Piwowar, and Lawrence Harris of the University of Southern California. For all but the largest investors8, trading bonds is many times more expensive than trading stocks. This is odd. In theory bonds should be no more expensive to trade than equities.
Even before sales commissions, the spread between what investors receive when selling $20,000-worth of corporate bonds and what they pay when buying is about 1.4%, or about one-quarter of a year's return. cosplayts are still higher in the convertible-bond market. And in the municipal-bond market, the spread reaches 2%, according to a similar study published by the SEC in the summer. All told, this is at least four times as expensive as a typical retail9 equity10 trade. The prices of most corporate bonds are reported soon after trading. But for the portion of the corporate-bond market where prices are still not required to be reported, a $2 trillion segment in 2003, the study reckons investors paid an additional $1 billion in trading cosplayts.
When trades are reported through the NASD, according to the study, trading cosplayts fall by 10% to 14%. And that is only a start, because the NASD system is glacially slow, reporting prices with a 30-minute delay. Meanwhile, only dealers know where the market is trading. With immediate11 disclosure, says Mr Harris, transaction cosplayts would undoubtedly12 fall farther. The benefits, he notes, would not be just to investors but to companies, because lower sales cosplayts would make their debt more attractive to buyers. Bond dealers have long resisted efforts to shine a light on their markets. The study indicates why. For the NYSE, opportunity knocks.
Economist13; 10/16/2004, Vol. 373 Issue 8397, p70-70, 1/2p
词语注解
bound market 债券市场
due adj.适合的；适合的；被期望的；约定、预期的
scrutiny [5skru:tInI; 5skru:tEnI] n. 细阅；详细检查；仔细研究
New York Stock Exchange 纽约证券交易平台
Securities and Exchange Commission 证券买卖委员会
National Association of Securities Dealers 全国证券买卖商协会
spread n.差额；进出差价
haunt n. 常去的地方; 栖息处; 巢穴
pickings n. 外快，临时收入
all told 一共；总计
market n. 证券的买卖，交易
shine a light on sth. v. 使某事了解了解地显示出来
opportunity knocks机不可失，失不再来；鸿运当头
参考译文
成熟
美国的债券市场需要进行仔细研究
奇怪的是，早在1792 年，债券就是纽约证券交易平台买卖的第一个品种。纽约证券交易平台用了30 年时间才给它起了个股票的名字。纽约证券交易平台早在几十年前就在证券买卖方面损失了任何有分量的股票。不过，深陷股票买卖本钱之战中的纽约证券交易平台现在正以相当正确的态度看待其它进出差价较大的市场。目前，它把注意力集中到了原来的老地方。它已开始与美国证券买卖委员会商讨，请求它允许我们的交易平台经营未上市公司债券。
债券市场显而易见的吸引力是它的规模：价值约10 兆USD的公司债券在2003年进行了买卖，这一数字比纽约证券交易平台的买卖额高四分之一。然而，债券市场的规模和成熟程度需要有明显的迹象表明，这个市场还有丰厚的油水可捞。然而，债券市场的效益有多高还非常难下定论。与公司股权相比，有关债券买卖价格的信息还非常缺少。
这样的情况两年前在全国证券买卖商协会开始采集买卖价格时就已经开始有所转变。这个月，证券买卖委员会发布了由该委员会委员艾米爱德华、迈克尔皮涡涡与南加州大学的劳伦斯哈里斯依据这类资料合作完成的一项研究报告。对最大投资者以外的几乎所有投资者来讲，债券买卖的代价比任何股票的买卖要高得多。这一点非常奇怪。从理论上讲，债券买卖本钱不应该高于股权的买卖本钱。
即便在缴纳销售佣金之前，在投资者价格值2万USD的公司债券时所得到数额与他们在购买债券时所支付的数额之间的进出差价大约是1.4%，大约是他们一年收益的四分之一。可兑换的债券市场的买卖本钱还要高。据证券买卖委员会今年夏季发表的一份类似的调查报告，市政证券市场进出差价达到2%。把这类数字加起来，总数比典型的零售股权买卖至少贵四倍。大部分企业的债券价格是在买卖后不久立刻就被公布。但对于还不需要报告价格的那部分公司债券市场而言，该项研究估计，投资者额外支付了10亿USD的买卖本钱。
依据这项研究，当全国证券买卖商协会报告了买卖额后，买卖本钱降低了10%到14%。而这只是开始，由于全国证券买卖商协会系统运行的速度是极度缓慢的，价格报告要滞后30分钟。在这期间, 只有商家才了解证券在什么地方买卖。哈里斯先生说，假如当即披露价格，买卖本钱无疑还会降低。他注意到，受益的不止是投资者，公司也同样受益，由于较低的买卖本钱会使他们的债务对用户更具吸引力。长期以来，债券商家一直不遗余力地抵制所有试图使这一市场愈加透明化的努力。这项研究报告道出了个中的奥秘。对纽约股票交易平台来讲就是机不可失，失不再来。
