This is just a reminder for my earlier post dated on 2nd Nov.  I hope you are very busy on other columns but I am very much interested to know the details like where can I buy this zero coupon bond in USA (near by Dallas) if you cant find any broker within AR state.

Thanks for your great Help
Sujatha Ramesh, Chennai, India

Kalidas Says …. Thursday, November 26, 2009
I am trying to figure it out. Any US stockbroker should be able to do that job. I tried Standard Bank (of South Africa – not same as Standard Chartered Bank), New York who have active security department. However, I did not get any reply from their MD to whom the email was addressed.

There used to be Tradebonds.com website which used to deal only in Bonds. However, I am getting error message for that website.

If Morgan Stanley/Royal Bank of Canada (their security arm RBC Dominion Security)/ Merrill Lynch of Bank of America have any branch near your US residence, they should be able to do that. They are also active market maker. Also try with HSBC USA who also have active security department. UBS may also be able to help.

Brokers are the best. I am having my bond portfolio with Charles Schwab but never conducted any trade.

I will contact you by email and also post a message separately here with any useful information that I may have.

Will you be able to do the same help to all those interested in buying the ZeroCoupon Bonds.. Because knowing the risk of buy these Bonds at wrong time there will be a drastic loss;

As from your article and discussions we understand that South African ZCBonds are best to invest as of today, is it possible for you to send across a message when it is right period/time to go for the Zero Coupon Bonds.

It will be of great help for we newbies, hope you will consider this request and will Alert/advice us with a BUY call

P.S: I have decided to go for the South African bonds using my canadian Canaccord account even it costs more brokerage to be paid to the Canaccord – Sir i am planning to set aside around 5000-8000 USD for these investments hoping to get a chance in the next 4-6months

Please advice

Many Thanks,

Sreeram
UK

You requested for the City name where my hubby lives and i have shared the details on 26th Oct. Please suggest us in detail on how to get this bond.

One another basic question I have. Will there be too much of yearly charges when we open a new account with any brokers. My maintenance cost should not eat up more cost as we must hold this account till the meturity period of the bond. Please correct me i have misunderstood anything.

Thanks
Sujatha Ramesh,
Chennai, India

Kalidas Says …. Monday, November 02, 2009
I received your details. I am trying to figure out from where you should buy. I had earlier link of http://www.Tradebonds.com which does not work.

When you deal with the brokers, they do not charge you anything. If you deal with some investment banks, they may charge annual fees. Even a company like Charles Schwab does not charge a penny to me.

I will revert to you

I have an Investment account with canadian Financial (Canaccord Capital) in Vancouver and i approached them and asked if they deal with Zero Coupon Bonds and found they do deal with ZCBonds;

But they said if they have to purhcase oversea’s ZCBonds like SouthAfrican i will be charged extra amount as they will purchase from 3rd party Financials like Canaccord;

But they also have Canadian Government Zero Coupon Bonds but they need to know which Bonds i am interested in, As i am newbie to this, Like South African ESKOM Holdings Ltd, do you know the best Canadian Bonds which i can ask my Advisor if they deal with?

Can you suggest some Canadian Bonds, i also asked them to give me the quotes for the SouthAfrican ZCBonds (taking the risk of extra charge);

Can you please advice on this;

Many Thanks again,

Regards,
Sreeram, UK

Kalidas Says …. Wednesday, October 28, 2009
I suggest South African Rand bonds for two reasons – Yield is high over 10% whereas the currency is relatively weak. When the currency becomes strong, the Government may be forced to lower interest rate which may increase the appel to Rand bonds. One therefore benefits with this double engine growth.

Interest rates in Canada is low to my knowledge. The zero may not be at significant discount like Rand bonds. If the yield in Can$ Zero bond is not over 8%, they are not good enough.

I do not know about Canadian Zero bonds. When I was stockbroker, I could search from bloomberg. Now due to inaccessibility of bloomberg, my information flow is limited. I can not suggest Can$ bonds. Ifyou do want to buy Can$ bonds, go to RBC Dominion Securities, a subsidiary of Royal Bank of Canada. They are big traders and marketmaker of Zero coupon bonds of any currency.