Bond purchasing

[gandb777]

I Would desire some help on purchasing bonds.
I use Etrade as my online broker for trading stocks and funds , but had not done anything with bonds.
A few days ago, as a trial, I decided to purchase a bond. Went to the proper Etrade area for bond purchasing and selected a GMAC bond for purchase. The stated price for this bond was $87.39 and could be purchased in increments of $1000.
I put in an order to purchase $1000 of this bond.

The next day the purchase had been executed and I found one GMAC bond in my portfolio (Specific bond not important).
However, I found I had spent $883.90.
$873.90 for the bond and #10.00 purchase fee.
Unfortunately, my portfolio showed the last trade of this bond to be $56.52 and my bond value to be $565.20.
How does this work. Apparently the quoted price at the time of purchase did not represent the true status.
For any future bond trading , How should I have proceeded.
Any and all explanations would be appreciated. Thanks gandb777

[Seeker]

I Would desire some help on purchasing bonds.
I use Etrade as my online broker for trading stocks and funds , but had not done anything with bonds.
A few days ago, as a trial, I decided to purchase a bond. Went to the proper Etrade area for bond purchasing and selected a GMAC bond for purchase. The stated price for this bond was $87.39 and could be purchased in increments of $1000.
I put in an order to purchase $1000 of this bond.

The next day the purchase had been executed and I found one GMAC bond in my portfolio (Specific bond not important).
However, I found I had spent $883.90.
$873.90 for the bond and #10.00 purchase fee.
Unfortunately, my portfolio showed the last trade of this bond to be $56.52 and my bond value to be $565.20.
How does this work. Apparently the quoted price at the time of purchase did not represent the true status.
For any future bond trading , How should I have proceeded.
Any and all explanations would be appreciated. Thanks gandb777

Bonds are not a short-term investment.... they approach par (face value) at their maturity date. Depending on the type of bond, there are risks involved -- especially when considered for short-term trading.

This link should help with some of the details:
Bond (finance) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bond valuation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[gandb777]

bond purchasing

Seeker, thanks for the reply but it did not help one bit. I didn't ask what kind of investment bonds were, I asked if anyone knew why the stated price was so much higher than the executed price, If you can't help, please don't reply,

[mommyof4]

Seeker, thanks for the reply but it did not help one bit. I didn't ask what kind of investment bonds were, I asked if anyone knew why the stated price was so much higher than the executed price, If you can't help, please don't reply,

I have no idea either, but can you call etade and ask one of their customer service people to explain this to you? I would be interested in the answer, too.