Best site for convertible bonds
Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank launched its convertible bonds site, Dbconvertibles.com, just over two years ago. Then, says Jeremy Howard, Deutsche’s head of global convertibles research, “it was little more than a research delivery mechanism”.
But Howard realized the potential of the site and got together with Jonathan Poole, a technical director at Deutsche, to discuss ways of making it more extensive. “We started to think about installing PDF files and wanted a distribution outlet for them,” explains Howard, “so we pushed for a website.”
Since then the site has rapidly evolved away from the normal lifeless PDF-filled sites that Deutsche Bank’s competitors offer. The site now contains features such as a pricing calculator and other analytics tools. Howard explains that the site develops all the time but that its fundamentals were laid down about a year ago when pricing tables and analytics were first posted.
The site is certainly comprehensive. The investor not only has the benefit of all the normal pricing information but is also able to see the prices tick in all the 1,800 convertibles entered onto the site, covering all the major markets of the US, Europe, Asia and Japan.
For each convertible bond on the site, an investor is able to access that bond’s own page, which contains all the necessary static information, such as credit spreads, stock borrowed, implied volatility graphs, links to the issuing company’s website and prospectuses.