Let me explain the difference between RSA Retail Savings Bonds and tradable South African bonds.
𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝘂𝘁 🔻
** Glossary **
𝗕𝗼𝗻𝗱:
A bond is a debt security. You can think of it as an I-O-U.
You lend money to someone, and then they promise to pay that money back to you + interest.
𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆:
Refers to the date on which the bond issuer (debtor) pays back everything they owe to bondholders ( creditor ).
1/ Introduction
When it comes to bonds there are two markets one can opt to participate in:
🟠 The Primary Market
🟠 The Secondary Market
The primary market is where you 𝗯𝘂𝘆 𝗶𝘁 𝗱𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 but then cannot sell it to someone else because there is no secondary market for it.
𝗥𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗦𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗕𝗼𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 and this is what makes them different from tradable government bonds.
𝗢𝗽𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁,
Tradable government bonds have a secondary market where they can be traded or held to maturity.
This means you can sell it when you want to, but it also means you can potentially lose money if the bond price has fallen lower than your original purchase price.
With tradable government bonds, you are 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗸.
*Unsettled funds going into 𝗚𝗙𝗘𝗖𝗥𝗔, means funds that entered into the account and had no purpose, they weren’t allocated or spent to anything specific.
*Picture just for visualization purposes to show the 3 Pools ( Waterfall arrangement)