How bonds are priced
Corporate, Treasury, municipal and all other bond types
The face amount of a single bond (typically $1,000) is the price of the bond before fluctuations in the market cause it to be sold for more or less than its face value. (The face amount is sometimes called the par value.)
| When Quicken requests | You enter |
|---|---|
| Face amount, number of shares, and number of bond | The face amount must be a multiple of 1000. The face amount is 100 times the number of shares you own, and 1000 times the number of actual bonds you own. For example, if you purchase bonds with a face amount of $20,000, the number of bonds would be 20, and the number of shares displayed in Quicken would be 200. |
| Price per share | The price per share is expressed as a percentage of the bond's face amount, using a base of 100. So if you pay $90 per share, you're paying 90 percent of the bond's face amount. The face amount is used to match the way bond prices are quoted. Quicken displays the number of shares in the investment register and Portfolio (a hundredth of the face amount). |
| Principal amount | The principal amount equals the face amount times the price expressed as a percentage. Let's say you buy 20 bonds with a face amount of $20,000. The price per share is $90 (expressed as a percentage of the bond's face value, this would be 90 percent, or 0.90). Therefore, your principal would be $20,000 times 00.90, which equals $18,000. |
U.S. savings bonds
U.S. savings bonds are priced according to the cost per single bond, not cost per share.