A time stamp on bids is used to award bonds to bidders tied at the clearing spread in the order they were received. Each investor gets a time stamp when its initial bid is confirmed and accepted. These bids are shared anonymously with all auction participants on a real-time basis. Investors can improve their initial bids and retain their time stamps as long as the improvement is within a specified protected spread range, as set before the auction. These improved final bids are non-public and are automatically entered at the end of the auction.
Investors can always move their bids outside the protected spread range and receive new time stamps.