Bonds

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Do bonds have liquidity?

In theory, bonds are highly liquid, in that you can buy or sell them whenever you want. However, in reality, many different factors can limit the liquidity of specific bonds:

  • When interest rates are rising, you may have to sell your bond for less than face value in order to find buyers for a bond that is paying less than market rate.
  • If market conditions have affected the credit rating of a company whose bond you are trying to sell, you may have trouble selling the bond at a price you like.
  • High yield or “junk bonds” may be hard to sell simply because there aren’t a lot of people who want to buy them.