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Finding Corporate Bond Trading Volume Through TRACE Data

Article Quant Q&A · Author: Sherbrooke
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Summary

The discussion asks whether Bloomberg’s standard data functions can retrieve trading volume for individual corporate bonds. It points to TRACE, the reporting system for many bond transactions, and describes Bloomberg’s trade-history view as a way to inspect recent price and volume activity. A bond analysis function is also mentioned for pricing and related market data, while FINRA’s market-data service is offered as another place to search using security identifiers.

Coverage is the central limitation. The replies indicate that available volume depends on the bond and reporting coverage: some Treasury bills and TRACE-reported bonds have volume information, while it may be unavailable for other bonds. The Bloomberg trade-history view is characterized as useful for examining market activity but not as a complete listing across all instruments. The document offers operational pointers rather than a systematic coverage guide or instructions for programmatic extraction, so users should verify availability for each security and data source.

Key ideas

  • Corporate bond trade data can be sourced through TRACE reporting.
  • Bloomberg’s trade-history view can display recent reported price and volume activity.
  • FINRA market data offers another search route using bond identifiers.
  • Volume availability varies by instrument, so a source may not cover every corporate bond.

Tags

Fixed incomeMarket microstructureExecution
Full text
# Extract Corporate Bond volume


# Extract Corporate Bond volume












Is it possible to extract the volume of Corporate bonds in Bloomberg with BDP, BDH or BDS function ? Example : 958254AC8 Corp; 98389BAM2 Corp; 94974BFP0 Corp. Doesn't seem like it's possible, even if we can see some trades in the TDH menu.

## Answer by user219626 (score 1)

https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/32395

On Bloomberg, you can do this through the TRACE reporting system, which requires dealers to publish prices soon after completing a trade. A summary of recent price and volume activity can be accessed via Bloomberg using the TDH (Trade History) command. However, this doesn't list down all instruments but mainly gives you a way to analyse the market trend.

In addition to TDH, Bloomberg also provides, Corporate Bond Analysis & Valuation Function (TACT) function via which you can analyse the bonds, it's pricing, marker data along with other indicators. As you would already know, Bloomberg HELP is always available instantly if you need any further information on these commands.

Last but not the least, the FINRA MarketData provides this and other related information on its website, and is quite useful. It also provides a way to search for different asset classes using identifiers (e.g. ticker, etc.). Hth.

## Answer by SolitonK (score 0)

https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/31019

You would find volume information on T-bills and some TRACE reported bonds. However for any other bond is not possible to get Volume information. You cannot witness the market activity

Shown in full with attribution under the source's licence. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 (Stack Exchange)

This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.