What is a primary dealer?
On , at the auction of the 26-week bill, primary dealers took 26.22% of the competitive bids accepted.
Primary dealers
26.22%
Drafted with AI assistance from official sources; checked against the sources listed below.
A primary dealer is one of the banks and broker-dealers that trade directly with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In return, each one is expected to bid in every Treasury auction, for a share of the amount on offer, at a reasonable price.
Why their share matters
Because dealers bid in every auction, they end up with whatever the other bidders do not take. Their share of the award is sometimes called the dealer takedown. 500metrics divides the dealers' accepted amount by the competitive bids accepted, so it adds up with the shares of indirect bidders and direct bidders to the whole competitive award.
Reading the share
A small dealer share means other buyers took most of the auction. A large one means dealers were left with more of it. Compare the share only with earlier auctions of the same term: bills, notes and bonds draw different mixes of buyers.
What it does not tell you
- Which dealers bid, or how much each took. The results give only the dealers' total.
- What dealers do with the securities next. The share is who was awarded them on the day of the auction.
Primary dealers' share, 26-week bill auctions
%
Source: U.S. Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service, Fiscal Data, Treasury Securities Auctions Data. Observed .
Earlier 26-week bill auctions as a table
| Auction date | Primary dealers' share |
|---|---|
| 5 October 2026 | 26.22% |
| 28 September 2026 | 30.23% |
| 21 September 2026 | 33.35% |
| 14 September 2026 | 33.09% |
| 8 September 2026 | 27.05% |
| 31 August 2026 | 43.42% |
| 24 August 2026 | 28.63% |
| 17 August 2026 | 24.65% |
| 10 August 2026 | 36.66% |
| 3 August 2026 | 32.73% |
Show 14 more rows
| Auction date | Primary dealers' share |
|---|---|
| 27 July 2026 | 29.62% |
| 20 July 2026 | 30.57% |
| 13 July 2026 | 25.42% |
| 6 July 2026 | 30.55% |
| 29 June 2026 | 36.40% |
| 22 June 2026 | 42.99% |
| 15 June 2026 | 23.33% |
| 8 June 2026 | 40.56% |
| 1 June 2026 | 33.96% |
| 26 May 2026 | 34.18% |
| 18 May 2026 | 27.57% |
| 11 May 2026 | 35.26% |
| 4 May 2026 | 35.84% |
| 27 April 2026 | 25.67% |
The latest auction: 26-week bill, 5 October 2026
| Figure | Value |
|---|---|
| Primary dealers | 26.22% |
| Indirect bidders | 63.22% |
| Direct bidders | 10.56% |
Source: U.S. Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service, Fiscal Data, Treasury Securities Auctions Data. Observed .
Sources for this page (2)
- fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datasets/treasury-securities-auctions-data: every auction figure on this page, field by field, as Treasury publishes it in its auctions data (checked )
- www.newyorkfed.org/markets/primarydealers: primary dealers are trading counterparties of the New York Fed and are required to bid in all Treasury auctions at reasonable prices
Sources and licence
Sources and licence
- U.S. Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service, Fiscal Data (source). Licence: Public domain, a work of the US federal government
Our text and compilation: CC BY 4.0. How to reuse and cite this page.