RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Occam’s Razor for Bond Trade Costs JF The Journal of Fixed Income FD Institutional Investor Journals SP jfi.2021.1.125 DO 10.3905/jfi.2021.1.125 A1 Vlad Rashkovich A1 Andrei Iogansen YR 2021 UL https://pm-research.com/content/early/2021/11/17/jfi.2021.1.125.abstract AB Inability to accurately project transaction cost is one of the main drags on alpha and performance for bond investors. We introduce a framework for bond trade cost analysis that reflects bond characteristics as well as order information. This framework leverages historical and real-time data to deliver solid explanatory power. Our goal is to help buy-side traders and dealers to build liquidity trees, while assisting portfolio managers to make investment decisions that include trade costs. We lean on 20 years of experience modeling transaction cost for equities, as well as intimate knowledge of the bond market microstructure. Our work covers investment grade and high yield corporate bonds, issued in USD, EUR, and GBP, as well as government bonds in developed and emerging markets globally.