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TRACE Eligible Bond: Definition & Meaning | Bondfish

What it means

TRACE stands for the Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine, a system run by the U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). Since 2002, FINRA member firms have been required to report over-the-counter trades in eligible debt securities to TRACE, usually within minutes. A bond is “TRACE eligible” when it falls into a category FINRA requires to be reported.

Coverage has expanded over time and now includes most U.S. dollar-denominated corporate bonds, agency debt, and many securitised products. The reported data — price, size (sometimes capped), and time — is disseminated publicly, turning a once-opaque market into one where recent trade prices are easy to check.

Why it matters for bond investors

Before TRACE, retail investors had little way to know whether a dealer’s price was fair. With a TRACE eligible bond, you can compare a broker’s quote against actual recent trades and spot an unreasonable markup. When researching a specific bond, checking its TRACE history is one of the fastest ways to gauge liquidity and a fair entry price. Bonds that trade only outside the U.S. may not be TRACE eligible, so transparency there can be lower.

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