Fixed Income

This article provides answers to common questions about Alpaca’s fixed income product offerings, including U.S. Treasuries and Corporate Bonds, available through the Broker API.

General Product Offerings

What types of fixed income products does Alpaca offer?

Alpaca supports two main categories of fixed income securities at this time:

U.S. Treasuries: Government debt securities. We currently offer Treasury Bills (T-Bills).
U.S. Corporate Bonds: Debt securities issued by U.S. corporations, including both investment-grade and high-yield options.

Who can access these fixed income products?

These products are available to all Broker API partners and can be offered to their end-users. This applies to all fixed income products on our platform.

Trading and Orders

How does trading work for fixed income?

This process is the same for both U.S. Treasuries and Corporate Bonds. All trading is executed via the API. Alpaca aggregates quotes from multiple liquidity providers to ensure best-price execution during U.S. bond market hours.

How are fixed income orders handled?

Due to our relationship with Moment, we are able to provide an equity-like experience for the handling and execution of fixed income orders. What does that mean? Fixed income orders, when placed, will be sent to an order book to pair against posted quotes. Your order will need to match both the price and the quantity requirement for the quote in order to pair. If your order does not immediately pair, it will be posted on the order book for the remainder of the trading day similar to a passive limit order in equity markets.

What order types are supported for fixed income?

For fixed income trades only limit and market orders are accepted. Please note that market orders are submitted as marketable limits with a 2.5% collar from the eligible top-of-book quote (i.e. quote with min qty available that is smaller or equal than the order size).

When do fixed income products trade?

The fixed income markets generally follow a schedule similar to equity trading with the majority of trading occurring between 9:30am ET and 4:00pm ET. However, bond markets can close sooner than equity markets on holidays or have treasury market closers while equity markets are still live. For an up to date schedule of bond market closures please refer to this website: https://www.sifma.org/resources/guides-playbooks/holiday-schedule

Is fractional investing available?

No. Currently, all fixed income products (both Treasuries and Corporate Bonds) are traded in full denominations only, which is typically in increments of $1,000 face value. We are planning to introduce fractional investing for these products in the future.

What happens if I place an order outside of market hours?

This process is the same for both U.S. Treasuries and Corporate Bonds. Orders submitted when the market is closed will be queued with an accepted status and will be sent for execution when the market reopens.

How do I cancel an order?

This cancellation logic applies to orders for both U.S. Treasuries and Corporate Bonds:

During Market Hours: A cancellation request is sent to the execution venue immediately.
Outside Market Hours: If the order's status is accepted, it will be cancelled immediately. If it has already been sent to a venue (e.g., status is new), it will become pending_cancel until the market opens.

What are the minimum and maximum order sizes?

The order size limits are as follows:

Minimum Order Size: $1000. This applies to both U.S. Treasuries and Corporate Bonds.
Maximum Order Size: $1,000,000.

Product Details: U.S. Treasuries

What is a U.S. Treasury Bill (T-Bill)?

T-Bills are short-term debt securities issued by the U.S. government with a maturity of one year or less. They are issued at a discount to their face value and do not pay periodic interest. At maturity, the investor receives the full face value of the bill.

What corporate actions are relevant for T-Bills on Alpaca?

As T-Bills do not pay coupons, the only corporate action is redemption. This occurs when the T-Bill matures and the holder is paid its face value.

How can I see which Treasuries are offered by Alpaca?

See below, please ensure to check if the tradable flag is set to true.

For sandbox: GET

https://broker-api.sandbox.alpaca.markets/v1/assets/fixed_income/us_treasuries

For production: GET

https://broker-api.alpaca.markets/v1/assets/fixed_income/us_treasuries

More details can be found here.

Product Details: Corporate Bonds

What are Corporate Bonds?

Corporate Bonds are debt instruments issued by corporations to raise capital. When you buy a corporate bond, you are lending money to the company. In return, the company typically pays you periodic interest (coupons) over the life of the bond and repays the principal amount at maturity.

Which types of corporate bonds are currently offered by Alpaca?

Investment-grade, non-puttable, non-callable, non-convertible, non-reg-s, non-144a corporate bonds. Please note that we are working to enable more types of corporate bonds soon.

How can I see which corporate bonds are offered by Alpaca?

See below, please ensure to check if the tradable flag is set to true.

For sandbox: GET

https://broker-api.sandbox.alpaca.markets/v1/assets/fixed_income/us_corporates

For production: GET

https://broker-api.alpaca.markets/v1/assets/fixed_income/us_corporates

Pricing, Yields, and Fees

How are fixed income securities priced?

This pricing convention applies to both U.S. Treasuries and Corporate Bonds. The price is quoted as a percentage of its par value (face value). This is known as the "clean price" and does not include any accrued interest. The total settlement amount will include the clean price plus any accrued interest for coupon-bearing bonds in specific.

How are markups and fees handled?

The concept of markups applies to both U.S. Treasuries and Corporate Bonds. Markups, which can be applied by Alpaca and/or partners, are included in the final execution price. It is important to note that for short-term U.S. Treasuries, the yield is highly sensitive to even small price markups.

Are there any regulatory fees?

For U.S. Treasuries, sales are reportable to the Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine (TRACE), which incurs a small regulatory fee.

API and Platform Integration

The following API functionalities apply to all fixed income securities available on the Alpaca platform.

How can I find fixed income assets via the API?

You can query for available assets using dedicated endpoints, such as /assets/fixed_income/us_treasuries or /us_corporates. You can filter results by identifiers like CUSIP or ISIN, subtype, and status.

How can I determine if a bond is tradable via the API?

The asset object returned by the API contains a tradable boolean field. If tradable is true, the security is available for trading.

What security identifiers are used?

We support both CUSIP (9-character) and ISIN (12-character) identifiers for all fixed income securities.

Custody, Settlement, and Compliance

Where are the assets held (custody)?

Custody differs by product type:

U.S. Treasuries: Custody is provided by our partner, BMO.
Corporate Bonds: Self-custodied by Alpaca in book-entry form at the Depository Trust Company (DTC), similar to equities.

What is the settlement cycle?

The settlement cycle differs by product type:

U.S. T-Bills: Settle on a T+1 basis (trade date plus one business day).
Corporate Bonds: Settle on a T+2 basis (trade date plus two business days), following standard U.S. market conventions.

Are there any special compliance requirements?

For end-users, there are no additional suitability assessments or customer agreements required (unlike options). For partners, a technical sign-off is required before enabling fixed income products in a production environment. All confirmations and statements comply with SEC Rule 10b-10.

The content of this article is for general information only and is believed to be accurate as of posting date but may be subject to change.

Fixed income securities can experience a greater risk of principal loss when interest rates rise. These investments are also subject to additional risks, including credit quality fluctuations, market volatility, liquidity constraints, prepayment or early redemption, corporate actions, tax implications, and other influencing factors.

All investments involve risk, and the past performance of a security, or financial product does not guarantee future results or returns. There is no guarantee that any investment strategy will achieve its objectives. Please note that diversification does not ensure a profit, or protect against loss. There is always the potential of losing money when you invest in securities, or other financial products. Investors should consider their investment objectives and risks carefully before investing.

Securities brokerage services are provided by Alpaca Securities LLC ("Alpaca Securities"), member FINRA/SIPC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of AlpacaDB, Inc. Technology and services are offered by AlpacaDB, Inc.

This is not an offer, solicitation of an offer, or advice to buy or sell securities or open a brokerage account in any jurisdiction where Alpaca Securities is not registered or licensed, as applicable.