Now that you know what a bond is, let us actually trade one. The Market tab is a regular order book, exactly like the product and share markets you may already have met elsewhere in the game, so if you have ever bought anything on a market here, this will feel instantly familiar. If you have not, do not worry in the slightest - it is genuinely just a tidy list of offers, sorted from cheapest to dearest, and buying from it is a couple of calm clicks. There is nothing here that can catch you out.
The treasury is the first seller
When a country first opens its bond programme, all 10,000 of its bonds are placed on the market as a single big offer from the State Treasury itself, priced at face value - whatever $0.10 comes to in that country's money. That treasury offer is called the primary market, and it is where brand-new bonds enter the world. So on the very first day, the only seller is the state, offering its whole stock at par. As players buy those bonds and later relist them at their own chosen prices, the order book fills up with a mix of offers - some still from the treasury at face value, others from fellow players at whatever price they fancy. The Market tab simply shows them all together, cheapest first.
Buying is refreshingly simple. You pick an offer, you say how many bonds you want, and you confirm. Bonds are whole things - you always buy them in whole numbers, never a fraction of a bond - and you pay in the issuing country's national currency, so you will need enough of that currency in your balance to cover the purchase. If you try to buy more than you can afford, the game gently fills as many whole bonds as your money will stretch to rather than failing outright, so you are never punished for aiming a little high. The moment the trade goes through, those bonds are yours and they start earning you the daily coupon straight away.
Primary sale money goes to the treasury
When you buy from the State Treasury's own offer, the money you pay flows into that country's state budget. When you buy from another player's listing, the money goes to that player instead. Same market, same clicks - only the destination of your money differs, depending on whether the seller is the treasury or a fellow citizen.
Listing your own bonds for sale
Here is the part that makes bonds feel truly yours: once you hold some, you can sell them on the very same market, at any price you like. You are not stuck holding a bond forever, and you are certainly not limited to selling it back at face value - if you think a country's bonds are worth half again what the treasury charges, or only three quarters of it, you list them at exactly that and let the market decide. To sell, you open the sell panel, choose how many of your bonds to list and the price per bond you want, and submit. The only rule on price is a sensible floor of 0.0001 per bond. Prices carry four decimal places rather than the usual two, and that is deliberate: in a strong currency a whole bond can cost less than one unit of money - a British bond's face value is around 0.08 GBP - so two decimals would not be enough to price it honestly at all.
One important thing happens the moment you list bonds for sale, and it is worth understanding clearly so nothing surprises you. The bonds you list are moved into escrow - they leave your holdings and sit safely inside your open offer while it waits for a buyer. They are not lost and they are not spent; they are simply set aside, reserved for whoever buys them. If you change your mind before anyone buys, you can cancel the listing at any time and those escrowed bonds drop straight back into your holdings, exactly as they were. Nothing is ever stuck.
- Open the Bonds page, pick a country with the selector, and go to the Market tab.
- To buy: choose an offer, enter how many whole bonds you want, and confirm - paying in that country's currency.
- To sell: open the sell panel, enter a quantity and a price of at least 0.0001 per bond, and list it - your bonds move into escrow.
- Change your mind? Cancel an open listing and the escrowed bonds return to your holdings instantly.
You cannot buy from your own listing
The market will not let you buy back your own offer - there would be no point, since you would just be paying yourself. If you want your bonds back off the market, cancel the listing instead of trying to buy it. That returns them to your holdings for free.
One small thing to notice while you are shopping: the treasury may have more than one offer on the market at once. Each batch of bonds a country has ever issued rests as its own separate offer, and those batches can pay different daily interest rates, so two treasury offers at the same price are not necessarily worth the same to you. The market shows each one's rate, and it is always worth a glance before you click.
So the Market tab gives you the full round trip: buy new bonds from the treasury at face value or from other players at their prices, and list your own holdings back onto the market at whatever price you believe they are worth. Buying is in whole bonds and in the national currency; selling escrows your bonds until a buyer arrives or you cancel. In the next lesson we turn to the quiet daily magic that makes holding a bond worthwhile in the first place - the coupon.