Gilt Edge Securities

[beaky]

Please can anybody explain this to me in simple terms. I am so confused. Thankyou Beaky

[frakison]

As basic as it gets:<BR>They are stocks and shares issued by the Government. They are (near as damn it) risk free (i.e you are GUARANTEED a return at whatever rate was set and its HIGHLY unlikely that the Govt will go bankrupt.... although with Tony in charge you never know!!!)).<BR><BR>They have a specific date at which they mature (i.e when you get your money back) and are issued as:<BR>short term - Up to 5yrs<BR>Medium - Up to 15 yrs<BR>Long - 15 yrs +<BR><BR>The only complication comes when trading such items as then you have to consider rate changes etc. For instance, you may have bought them when the interest rate was 10%, they would be fixed at this and so an investor may pay more to get them as it would be better than an investment account offering say 3% (obviously this would be reversed if the opposite happened).<BR><BR>Does this help??

[beaky]

Yes thats great. When I read the textbook I couldn't make sense of it all.<BR>Thanks for your time and help.<BR><BR>Beaky.