Fixed-income investors may be getting additional information about U.S. Treasury securities prices from TradeWeb LLC, New York.
Executives at the electronic bond trading firm are discussing the possibility of offering TradeWeb users access to the actual prices of trades being executed on the system, much like the ticker information offered by stock exchanges, said Thomas G. Eady, chief operating officer.
"It's still being discussed. There's a lot of interest," he said.
TradeWeb's primarily Web-based system offers bond price indications from its dealer members: Credit Suisse First Boston; Goldman Sachs & Co.; Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.; Merrill Lynch & Co.; and Salomon Smith Barney Inc. (J.P. Morgan & Co. Inc., Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. and Barclays Capital have all committed to joining the system as well).
If actual trade prices were to be offered on the TradeWeb screen, Mr. Eady said, it would not include the sizes of the trades, which would reveal more information than most users would be comfortable with.
Down the line, TradeWeb also could be used to trade agency or corporate securities, Mr. Eady said, but for now the firm is focusing on the Treasury market.
The TradeWeb system effectively replaces the current dealer system of making phone calls to obtain bond price quotes, and execute trades. TradeWeb allows users to get quotes and execute trades electronically in less than 10 seconds.
