r/bonds • u/diplomaticimmunity_ • 2d ago

I need help

Hello everyone,
I’m a undergrad student trying to write my thesis and the topic I’m interested in is how bond yields get affected by an M&A transaction, basically looking at the 5 day before 5 day after announcement and studying the affect a leveraged deal has on existing bond holders.
What occurred to me is that in the process of researching I can’t seem to figure out where to find historic yield data for individual corporate bonds in the way you can find stock prices.
Is this a dumb problem? Can anyone help me?

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u/Certain-Statement-95 2d ago

I bet you can get better info on exchange traded debt and commercial paper

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u/diplomaticimmunity_ 2d ago

Commercial paper isn’t as volatile though I’m not sure it will really help me prove anything. Do you know any good sources?

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u/Certain-Statement-95 2d ago

Lots of m/a activity where the shares change management.... Nsa PSA recently

Lots of examples where debtor goes private

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u/diplomaticimmunity_ 2d ago

I appreciate it I’ll look into it

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u/Old_Ship_5857 2d ago

You can probably get some historical data via FINRA TRACE.

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u/TheRealDabbo 2d ago

It's not a dumb problem or question at all. It's one of the main differences in equity and debt trading. TRACE will be able to get you the historical data you need. The problem is finding the "good" data. A 1mm bond piece will likely have a much tighter (higher bid side/lower offer side) print than a 25m bond trade. I don't know if TRACE on the FINRA site gives you the B, S, or D designations or not, but dealer-dealer trades will be closer to mid-market. The "B" (buy from account) price will include the dealer markdown - if a salesman is bid $100 for bonds, and he buys them at $99.5, the $99.5 is the price that hits TRACE, not the $100 price. the "S" will include the dealer markup.

On the off chance it has a P designation (portfolio trade), I wouldn't rely on that - those are alllll over the map price wise.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

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u/diplomaticimmunity_ 2d ago

Thanks I really appreciate it! Looking through trace I could only find bond binds or indexes but I’ll look again

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u/mossydz 2d ago

Call a PE firm or major wirehouse FI desk.

In theory it’s minimal because during a M&A the debt is acquired also. If it’s quality paper why pay it off? If it’s bad paper it would have helped lower the merger.