Agency Transaction

A sale and purchase of bonds in which the dealer places bonds with the buyer on a commission basis rather than selling bonds that the dealer owns.

REMARKS: Bond funds including mutual funds (open-end and closed-end, actively managed and indexed), exchange-traded funds and unit investment trusts offer a convenient and affordable way to invest in a diversified portfolio of bonds, but a bond fund investment can differ from a bond investment in ways that are important to understand. Many bond funds make monthly or quarterly ?dividend? payments, as opposed to the semiannual payment schedule common to most bonds.