Treasury Direct

What Does Treasury Direct Mean?
The market where investors can purchase treasury securities directly from the federal government Treasury. This trading system eliminates brokers and dealers, and is conducted through Federal Reserve Banks. Tenders can be made either on a competitive or non-competitive basis.

Investopedia explains Treasury Direct
In the competitive bidding process in a Treasury direct market, securities are sold to the highest bidder first, while the non-competitive bids are sold to every bidder at the average price set during the auction process. Further, the absence of brokers and dealers allows the Treasury direct market to be the cheapest market for investors to purchase Treasury securities.

The typical minimum investment in the Treasury direct market is $1,000.