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Tag Archives: Zions Direct
Zions Direct Announces Auction Results
In auctions closed from November 22, 2010 to November 26, 2010, investors purchasing municipal bonds in the auctions received average tax-exempt yields 1.30 percentage points, or 130 basis points, higher than similar bonds as reported by the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB). Customers that purchased corporate bonds in the auctions received average taxable yields 143 basis points higher than comparable bonds reported in FINRA’s Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine (TRACE).
Zions Direct, in conjunction with BondDesk Group LLC, regularly publishes a Market Snapshot for investors to help understand the current bond market, summarizing current weighted-average yields of investment-grade municipal and corporate bonds . . . read more Read More
Upcoming Retirement Seminars in Provo and Logan
Zions Bank has recently announced a new service called Zions Bank Retirement Resources, which provides customers with information on a variety of retirement considerations, such as wills, trusts, 401(k)s, IRAs and a host of other important topics.
Over the coming months, Zions Bank Retirement Resources along with Zions Direct and Zions Investment Services Group will be hosting a series of seminars on a variety of retirement subjects.
The next seminar will be held June 11 . . . read more Read More
Zions Direct-Sponsored United Rugby Wins Nationals
Utah-based United won its first U-19 Rugby Club National Championship at Rio Tinto stadium on Saturday, May 22, defeating defending national champion Highland (Utah) 22-17 in a well-played, hard fought match.
The Zions Direct-sponsored team deftly moved through the tournament. After drumming Georgia-based Alpharetta Phoenix in the quarter-finals with a 50-0 victory and handling eventual third-place finishers Katy, Texas in the semifinals 41-6, United met familiar foe Highland in the finals . . . read more Read More
Zions Bancorporation Announcement
Zions Bancorporation Announces Equity Distribution Agreement and Commencement of Senior Notes Offering
Understanding and Improving Auctions
One of the main differences of Zions Direct, when compared to most other brokerages, is our focus on fixed-income products. Part of this is apparent in our Bonds for Less offering: a large selection, low commission fees, and institutional pricing (which allows retail customers to get the same pricing that large organizations get when buying bonds).
The other major part of the Zions Direct approach is our auction platform. Zions Direct Auctions is an innovative tool that allows regular individuals to help price the offered securities alongside institutions, and each bidder, big or small, can purchase each fixed-income product at the same price—a welcome change toward transparency and accessibility in an often confusing financial system. Read More
Secondary Corporate Bond Auctions
For years, Zions Direct has been a leader in offering corporate bonds to retail customers at institutional prices. This week, Zions Direct has expanded that approach with the announcement of their first auction of secondary market corporate bonds. This innovative approach to selling corporate bonds allows retail and institutional investors to set the yield through a competitive bidding process, in contrast to the typical approach in which a broker/dealer sets the offering yield. Read More
Historic Week at Zions Direct Auctions
On April 28, Zions Direct closed its first municipal bond offering on the auctions platform. At its close, participants had bid on nearly nine times the offered amount on the Manatee County, Florida bond with the highest bid asking for a premium price of more than 1½ % above the coupon. Because of the benefits of the modified Dutch auction model, all winning bids got a better price than the coupon amount as each walked away a yield greater than 4.251% on these seven-year municipal bonds.
For those taking those possible tax advantages on this bond, if we assume a 35% tax bracket, it would take a yield of 6.53% on a taxable security in order to get a similar after-tax equivalent yield. Read More
Zions Direct in Wall Street Journal
Zions Direct Chairman W. David Hemingway was featured in a recent Wall Street Journal article examining the Zions Direct auction platform. Read More
New Municipal Bond Auction
Zions Direct announces its first auction of secondary market municipal bonds. The auction will begin Monday, April 20, and will run for eight days. This innovative approach to selling municipal bonds allows retail and institutional investors to set the yield through a competitive bidding process. This is in contrast to the typical approach in which a broker/dealer sets the offering yield. Read More
World Money Show
Look for Zions Direct at the World Money Show in Orlando February 4-7. We will be hosting a booth and two workshops to describe why Zions Direct is the ideal destination for the self-directed fixed income investor. Attendees will see how our pricing—$10.95 flat fee per online bond and stock trade*—and our online trading platform give them the competitive edge. We will demonstrate how to bid in our auctions for corporate and municipal bonds and FDIC-insured CDs. Also, we will explain how to search and trade over 25,000 corporate, municipal, agency and treasury bonds through Bonds for Less. Read More
You’re Welcome to Think
It turns out that this Internet thing is good for more than just sending emails, investing, and viewing weird home videos. And we know that we need to do better at using it to communicate with you.
Armed with that knowledge, we are starting a blog. Those of you in the know understand what a blog is—or at least you have an idea of a few out there—see the value in creating a communication tool where we can talk to you and you can talk to us. But to those who do not know, we’ll explain what it means for Zions and what our purpose will be. Read More
