Most bonds in Australia are traded through the
over-the-counter market, in fact
ninety-five percent of bonds,
and the market's worth approximately a
trillion dollars.
So, there's no central exchange for bonds you need to find the
broker and they'll
talk to you about the buy/sell prices of
the bonds. Traditionally, the wholesale market
only traded in minimum parcel sizes of
five hundred thousand dollars
making the market inaccessible to
individual and middle market investors.
Fixed income dealers and brokers have
identified bonds
that can be broken down into smaller parcels from as low as ten thousand dollars
and that are available to retail investors.
There are many advantages to the OTC market. 
The first is
the sheer size and the number issuers, in fact there is over 230 issuers
into the market. There's also a lot of
investors so there is very good liquidity
which means you can sell the bonds
at short notice without loss of value.
There is also very good range of the three types of bonds available, so the fix-rate
the floating-rate and the
inflation-linked.
Whereas the ASX listed market doesn't
have that same range.
One of the things that differs
between the OTC market and the ASX listed market
is that because the OTC market is
predominately wholesale investors
they've got a very good understanding of
the pricing of risk so the investments
that you make there
have a better appreciation often you can
be paid more through the OTC market for
similar investments.
The disadvantages of the OTC market are that
you have to invest a minimum
of ten thousand dollars face value,
which will preclude some investors. the
other is that
because is now exchange it's difficult
to discover
price however brokers will usually
publish price on a regular basis.
And the third being: that you must find a
dealer or broker
to be able to transact. In conclusion, the OTC market
is really huge with over a trillion
dollars invested
in bonds in Australia with lots of
different investors
it's a liquid market and it's a market
that I'd highly recommend you to consider.
