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Municipal market still stuck in the 70s

Mar. 11, 2014 10:24 AM ETPRB, PZT, MUB, TFI, CMF, NYF, PZA, PWZ, INY, CXA, SHM, PVI, ITM, MLN, SMB, SUB, HYD, VRD, BAB, SMMU, MUNI, MUAC, IBMD, IBME, IBMF, GMMB, BABS, BABZ, HYMB, XMPT, IBMG, RVNU, SHYD, IBMHBy: Stephen Alpher, SA News Editor2 Comments
  • Retail investors are likely to see about twice as much in "leakage" when buying and selling municipal bonds as they do for corporate paper, according to the WSJ, and regulators - who bypassed the municipal market while helping reshape how Wall Street works - have this asset class in its their sights.
  • "We spend an awful lot of time on the equities side of the market where spreads are counted in pennies - and in the muni market, spreads are counted in dollars," says SEC Commissioner Michael Piwowar.
  • For their part, brokerages say munis cost more because they trade in lower volume and for smaller amounts than other securities.
  • "You think of how the retail industry has gone from the local grocery store to Wal-Mart to Amazon," says a municipal bond wealth manager. "In municipal bonds, we're still shopping at the local grocery store."
  • ETFs: MUB, HYD, BAB, PZA, MUNI, TFI, ITM, HYMB, MLN, CMF, SHM, BABZ, BABS, XMPT, SUB, NYF, PRB, PZT, SMB, CXA, SHYD, PWZ, PVI, SMMU, MUAF, INY, MUAE, MUAD, MUAC, VRD, MUAG, GMMB, MUAH, RVNU

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