There are three ways to access trade prices on EMMA.

• Security Details: Using a quick or advanced search, find the Security Details page for a specific municipal security and click on the Trade Activity tab. View a daily summary or expanded detailed listing of trade prices, the resulting yield (if available), principal amount and other trade information for that security.
• Trading Snapshot: View a real-time snapshot of the most actively traded securities on EMMA's homepage.
• Trade Activity: View up to 100 of the most actively traded securities for the current trading day by selecting “Trade Activity” from the drop-down menu on EMMA’s Market Activity tab. From this view, you can also access a “ticker” of the 100 most recent trades. A third option allows you to search for trades based on certain specific characteristics, including trade date, yield, amount and other special trading conditions.

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EMMA trade price and yield graphs provide a visual representation of a municipal security's trade prices and yields over time. EMMA trade price and yield graphs can help investors easily analyze trends and make comparisons.
Watch a video about how to use EMMA trade price graphs .

Click on the "Trade Price and Yield Graphs" link located in lower left corner of the Trade Activity tab on every Security Details page to access a graph of a particular security's trade prices and yields over time. The default graph displays a summary of the daily high and low trade prices for that security plotted over time. Choose the "Details" option to view a scatter plot of the security’s trade prices over time. The same options are available for yield by selecting "Trade Yield Graph" in the gray bar at the top of the graph.

Hover over a particular data point to view more details about the trade, including the resulting yield (if available), principal amount and the exact price. The details graph displays customer-bought, customer-sold and interdealer trades. Deselect any of the trade types in the graph legend to hide from view.

The y-axis represents trade prices or yields and the x-axis represents trade date and time. To view more or less trade data, select a time period from the options available at the top left side of the graph. Alternatively, use the scrollbar below the x-axis to expand or shrink the time period shown.

EMMA price discovery tool provides access to trade price and yield graphs of multiple securities with similar characteristics.
Watch a video about how to use EMMA's price discovery tool .
Read more.

These multi-security graphs display a summary of the daily high and low trade prices and yields for the selected securities. On these graphs, each vertical line illustrates the highest and lowest traded price or yield of a security for one trading day. Hovering over a particular line displays a tooltip with more trade information about the security for the trading date, including the highest and lowest yield, total number of trades and total principal amount. To view the description of a security, mouse over the CUSIP number displayed at the top of the graph. Hide a security from view by clicking on its CUSIP number in the graph legend.

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EMMA provides a tool to assist users with getting a sense of the price of a security that trades infrequently. By entering the CUSIP of any security, users can quickly find others that share its key characteristics and view a side-by-side comparison of their prices and yields. Users can also graph up to five securities for a visual representation of trade prices over time.

Watch a video about how to use EMMA's price discovery tool .
Click here to access the tool.

The tool is also accessible from the Trade Activity tab on the Security Details page of any security on EMMA.

The tool creates a set of search parameters to find other securities with similar characteristics. These parameters can be adjusted as desired to broaden or narrow the search. Click the “Find Securities” button to get results based on the search parameters you set.

The results include information about the original bond and all other securities that match your search criteria. The most actively traded bonds are listed first. For a grid view that allows easy comparison of prices, yields and other characteristics, select up to five securities and then click the “Side-by-Side Comparison” button. For a visual representation of the securities’ trade prices over time, select up to five securities and click the “Trade Price Graph” button. Read more about using EMMA trade price graphs.

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A municipal security trade or transaction is a sale of a bond by one party to another. There are several ways to find trade data on EMMA.

Note: It is important to understand that many factors can affect the value of a security. Further information and a more extensive discussion of trade prices, including limitations and considerations relevant to understanding trade prices, can be found in the MSRB Education Center.

The following items are disclosed in connection with trade prices, depending on your current view:

Trade Date/Time - shows the time and date on which a legally binding agreement was reached between the buyer and seller of the securities. The trade time and date cannot precede the point in time at which the issuer enters into a legal agreement to issue the bonds through sale to the underwriter, even if the buyer and seller have informally agreed to enter into the transaction at an agreed-upon price prior to that time and date.

Settlement Date - shows the date on which the transaction is completed, which is when final payment for the bonds and transfer of ownership of the bond occurs. Transactions in the secondary market typically settle one business day after the trade date – this is typically referred to as a "regular way" trade with a T+1 settlement. However, new issue securities traded prior to the official issuance of the bonds are considered “when issued” securities that settle only when the issuer has completed its issuance of the bonds and delivered the bonds to the underwriters for further distribution to the marketplace.

CUSIP – shows the CUSIP-9 number for the securities. Trade data is not available for any municipal securities that do not have CUSIP-9 numbers.

Security Description – shows the name of the issuer and the issue description – together, this is the full name of the bonds, using the industry-standard abbreviations for the security description.

Maturity Date – shows the date on which the principal amount of the bonds becomes due.

Interest Rate – shows the stated interest (or “coupon”) rate for fixed-rate securities. This will generally be shown as zero for a “zero-coupon” or capital appreciation bond, and will generally be left blank for a variable rate security, although this convention may not be universally followed.

Price – shows the price at which the securities were purchased, expressed as a percentage of the principal amount of the securities.

Yield – shows the yield, based on a "yield to worst," that may be realized on an investment in the security based on the settlement date, price, interest rate on the security and the remaining period until maturity or earlier redemption.

Calculation Date and Price – shows the date and price the MSRB used to calculate either the yield or price of the trade.

Trade Amount shows the par value of the transaction if five million dollars or under; otherwise reported as "MM+"; during the first week after the trade date. After a week has elapsed, "MM+" is replaced by the exact trade amount.

Trade Type – shows whether a customer bought the security from a broker-dealer or bank, a customer sold the security to a broker-dealer or bank, or the trade was between a broker-dealer or bank and another broker-dealer or bank.

Special Condition Indicator – shows whether any special conditions apply to the trade. Most trades do not have a special condition indicator. The categories of special conditions are as follows:

- (A) Alternative Trading System Trade – indicates inter-dealer trades executed with or using the services of an alternative trading system.

- (B) Broker’s Broker Trade – indicates an inter-dealer trade done by a broker's broker.

- (L) List Offering Price/Takedown Trade– indicates a trade executed on the first day of trading of a new issue, either by an underwriter or another broker-dealer or bank involved in the initial distribution of the securities at the published "list offering price" for the security, or by an underwriter to another broker-dealer or bank involved in the initial distribution of the securities at a discount (or "takedown") from the published list offering price for the security.

- (N) Non-Transaction-Based Compensation Arrangement Trade – indicates customer trades that did not include a mark-up, mark-down or commission.

- (P) Weighted Average Price Trade – indicates that a trade was reported using a weighted average price based on multiple transactions done at different prices earlier in the day to accumulate the total amount of bonds needed to make the transaction.

- (W) When Issued Trade – indicates that a trade in a new issue security was executed on or before the final issuance and settlement of the issue of securities by the issuer.

For more information on understanding trade prices, visit the MSRB Education Center.