Price as a percentage of par
The convention for quoting a bond: the price is shown as a share of par rather than as a sum of money.
Formula
N is the par value on the trade date. For amortising issues and inflation-linked bonds it changes over the life of the issue, so the same quote means different money in different years.
How to read the number
The convention lets issues with different par values be compared directly and shows at once whether the bond trades above or below the body of the debt.
When the metric lies
Also known as: clean quote, percentage of par