Treasury bills, aka T-bills, are auctioned off by the U.S. Treasury at a weekly bill action. T-bills are short-term (under a year) securities meant to help the U.S. dig themselves out of the canyon of debt, bit by bit. T-bills are backed by the U.S. government, making them risk-free.
While there are investors, both people and institutions, that can submit bids for T-bills, there are “primary dealers” who have to submit bids every bill auction. They typically have a par value, under which they are sold. Think: Par at $1,000 for bonds coming due in 9 months being auctioned such that they sell for $973.12, and then boringly come due when the baby IPOs.
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Finance: What is an Auction Market?13 Views
Finance a la shmoop... what is an auction market.. next up on the block [Man speaking on stage]
we've got stock in the company comb Depot....
okay yeah so the New York
Stock Exchange is an auction market and you have no idea how much caffeine I had [Man holding a monster energy drink]
to have to get that right which means that the prices on the new york stock
exchange happen during a bidding process we're matching offers get you know [People frantically rushing to bid for stocks]
matched... buyers and sellers buy and sell at the
same time so in essence two transactions are happening at once the opposite of
this sort of market is the over the counter or OTC market where dealers are
the ones holding all the cards and they ultimately determine the price by [Dealer with the cards]
creating a spread from where they're willing to sell your shares and what
price they'll pay to buy your shares but in an OTC market well you don't get to [Dogs running side by side]
feel like you're watching the last leg of a greyhound race so you don't get all
my caffeinated auction talk there which is kind of cool we like that, right..right?
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