Since February 2004, NASD has disseminated price and transaction data in real time on all but a tiny fraction of public corporate bond transactions through its Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine (Notice to Members 06-01.
On average, information is available daily on TRACE on 22,000 transactions representing approximately $18 billion in volume. TRACE data is available to the public free of charge at www.nasdbondinfo.com. Also available there are the new NASD-Bloomberg Active Investment Grade US Corporate Bond Index and the NASD-Bloomberg Active High Yield US Corporate Bond Index - the only corporate bond indices generated solely from the actual transaction prices of actively traded bonds, not on quotes or estimated prices. Posted after 5:30 p.m. every trading day, each index provides index values for Total Return, Price, Yield and Volume, with changes from the previous close. Additional supporting information includes each index's 10 most active bonds, the top 10 leading movers and the top 10 lagging movers.
The indices were created to help retail investors gauge overall market direction and to measure the performance of their corporate bond holdings against the broader market. NASD also recently launched a comprehensive, on-line learning center called Smart Bond Investing to help demystify the corporate, municipal and government bond markets for retail investors.
Investors can obtain more information about, and the disciplinary record of, any NASD-registered broker or brokerage firm by using NASD's BrokerCheck. NASD makes BrokerCheck available at no charge to the public. In 2004, members of the public used this service to conduct more than 3.8 million searches for existing brokers or firms and requested more than 190,000 reports in cases where disclosable information existed on a broker or firm. Investors can link directly to BrokerCheck at www.nasdbrokercheck.com. Investors can also access this service by calling (800) 289-9999
NASD is the leading private-sector provider of financial regulatory services, dedicated to investor protection and market integrity through effective and efficient regulation and complementary compliance and technology-based services. NASD touches virtually every aspect of the securities business - from registering and educating all industry participants, to examining securities firms, enforcing both NASD rules and the federal securities laws, and administering the largest dispute resolution forum for investors and registered firms. For more information, please visit our Web site at www.nasd.com.
("Copyright 2005 National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc.")