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Journal of Finance Vol. 81 No. 4 2026

Quote Competition in Corporate Bonds

Terrence Hendershott1; Dan Li2,3; Dmitry Livdan1; Norman Schürhoff4; Kumar Venkataraman5

1 University of California, Berkeley · 2 Federal Reserve · 3 Federal Reserve Board of Governors · 4 Swiss Finance Institute · 5 Southern Methodist University

open access

Abstract

Dealer quotes in corporate bonds, though indicative, lower trading costs and increase trading volume. Dealers offering higher quality quotes attract more order flow and execute trades at favorable prices. Dealers advertise quotes to manage their inventories and attract orders from nonrelationship clients. However, quote competition is imperfect. The best quotes often fail to attract orders, and trade‐throughs are common. Nevertheless, quote competition is important as clients exploit quotes from other dealers in negotiations, forcing dealers with lower quality quotes to offer price improvements. Quoting is not a zero‐sum game, as more active bond‐level quoting leads to more bond‐level trading.

DOI
10.1111/jofi.70048
Volume
81
Issue
4
Pages
2165-2216
Language
en
Sources
openalex crossref

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