Bond terminology: Maturity

Most people understand what this means intuitively, but to clarify, it refers to the date at which the bond issue has agreed to repay to the lender the debt that they lent.

So if you paid £2000 for the bond it is the date at which that will be repaid.

There are various different definitions and terms to be considered here with government bonds, as follows.

There are short gilts, which are those with seven or less years to run.

Medium ones have seven to fifteen years to redemption

And longs are those that have a very long period of time to run indeed, in fact over fifteen years until they come to redemption!

Occasionally there are undated stocks but these are a rarity, although there is a certain date given from which you can redeem them as required.

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