“What’s my cover?” Often bond dealers will put out “bid lists” to customers or other banks of relatively illiquid bonds and ask for competitive bids for a hand

“What’s my cover?” Often bond dealers will put out “bid lists” to customers or other banks of relatively illiquid bonds and ask for competitive bids for a handful of bonds. Invariably the buyer with the winning bid on a bond would ask “What’s my cover?”, that is “How much more did I pay than the next best bid.” Importantly, there is no legal obligation to tell the them or especially to tell them the truth, and invariably the response would be “a tick” (1/32). The only time I’ve heard someone say someone tell the truth with bad news for the customer was “No cover - you were the only bid.”