Alaric wrote:dealtn wrote:The gilt market is poorly set up for retail accounts, that's for sure, and I doubt much has changed for the better in the 5 years or so since I left it.
The DMO quotes prices available to private investors.
https://www.dmo.gov.uk/data/pdfdatarepo ... tCode=D10B
Thank you for that. The link gives the dirty prices. When I last looked, the DMO site directed me to another site and I had to log in to get that information. The index linked gilt that I currently hold has a spread of about 0.25%. That is about what I observed when selling in my Youinvest SIPP and buying the same stock in my iWeb dealing account.
As far as the negative real yields are concerned, the inflation rate at which the index linked gilts break even with the conventional gilts is given here:
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/statistics/yield-curves
The implied inflation rate is between 2.5% and 3.5%, depending on the remaining term of the gilt. That may turn out to be high, but insurance costs money. The index linked gilts with a coupon of 0.125% have the advantage that there is very little income tax to pay.