Charles Schwab

Stocks are often purchased based on emotion, emergency, and timeliness, all fueled in large part by the financial media—the decision-making process for buying a bond is less-sensitive. —John Ladensack, senior vice president, Charles Schwab... 

John Ladensack, senior vice president and head of online fixed-income operations for Charles Schwab Inc., explains that individuals invest in bonds, they don t trade bonds. "Stocks are often purchased based on emotion, emergency, and timeliness, all fueled in large part by the financial media—the decisionmaking process for buying a bond is less-sensitive," Ladensack contends. Bonds, on the other hand, are purchased by investors who ve done their homework, have researched the credit quality and yield, and anticipate a particular return for their investment. Figure 3.1 shows the proportion of fixed-income securities held by individuals. 

ValuBond are owned by Cantor Fitzgerald and Charles Schwab, respectively, along with other private investors. Without going into the specific characteristics of each, all three allow participating broker/dealers to offer execution capabilities to traders, liaison traders, registered representatives, private clients, and correspondent broker networks. 

Charles Schwab has a great calculator (one of many) on their site. A relatively simple investment calculator is offered in the "Investment Basics" area of the Charles Schwab web site. This General Goal Planner tool allows users to calculate the amount of additional investment necessary to reach a specified goal, based on what they currently have and how they expect that to perform. 

Thanks to the pioneers of the e-bond industry whose passionate words and never-ending enthusiasm helped buoy my excitement in the subject matter John Ladensack of Charles Schwab, John Demitroff of Tradeweb, Brad Wendt of BondDesk.com, David Landes of Bondsonline, John Durrett of MuniDirect.com, and John Pigott of ValuBond. 

Schwab, Charles R. You re Fifty—Now What Investing for the Second Half of Your Life (New York City, NY Crown Publishing Group, 2002). 

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