New Issue Trading – Patience

We have received numerous notes in the last few weeks from readers wondering if/when certain new issues would be trading.  In particular we note that the exchanged traded debt issues can be very slow before they are listed in a public market.

Scorpio Bulkers 7.5% Senior Notes (ticker:SLTB) and Cowen Group 8.25% Senior Notes (ticker:Unknown) are recent examples.  We first wrote about the Scorpio issue on September 19, 2014.  It was near the end of the month before the issue began trading on the NYSE.  We wrote about the Cowen issue on October 7, 2014 and as of this moment we are not aware of a public trading venue where one can purchase the shares (we don’t even know the ticker yet). These shares are to be traded on the NASDAQ and it simply takes time before the shares hit the market.

Our suggestion is to use the ‘high tech’ method we use on issues such as Cowen–we write it on a Post-it note and hang it on our computer monitor–then check for it each day on Fidelity.

Sorry we have no answers for those looking for firm info–we simply are not aware of a easy way to know when these debt issues will first trade.