bond ladder - now or later?

mrklaw

How much do gilt prices fluctuate generally? Specifically its taken a little longer than I’d hoped to transfer the cash over to AJ Bell. they just received it but not showing up yet. Likely won’t appear until end of day or perhaps Monday.

sensible thing is be patient and wait until monday. But if it shows up over the weekend, is there any risk of significant drift from the prices the lategenxer tool shows (assume they’ll be Friday prices) vs Monday when it gets executed?

QrizB

Generally? Generally gilts move by a handful of basis points at a time. They're a lot less volatile than shares, for example.

Large changes in gilt prices tends to mean significant changes in the political situation. Not necessarily domestic politics.

So if the UK chose this weekend to announce a General Election, say, or the US invaded Greenland, that could have a big effect.

Edit to add: the first three replies to this thread are the sort of thing I'm talking about.

leosayer

As I recall when buying gilts with AJ Bell on their website, you can only specify the £ amount, not the amount of units.

However if getting the exact amount of units is important to you then you can do this over the phone but you'll pay much higher charges for that.

mrklaw

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82095084#Comment_82095084

and of course they clear it at 10 minutes to 5pm on a Friday :P

do I spend time at the weekend setting up the buy or wait until the market is open? I think I’ll have a go tomorrow

Kryten_the_Titan

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82095483#Comment_82095483

I believe you can only buy gilts when the market is open, so not at the weekend or holidays. First thing Monday morning bright and early.

mrklaw

ah you’re right. I tried to do one just now and when you go to review order it says the market is closed and you can’t do a limit order on gilts.

one question before monday then

eg for TG29 the gilt ladder tool is sayimg I want 26.34 units at a cost of 2406.17. clean price 91.32, dirty price 91.33.

in AJ Bell deal page I only get this:

so does that mean I put in the 2406.17 figure - no way to put in a number of units?

RogerPensionGuy

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82095658#Comment_82095658

However some platforms do a fill or kill order and you put price range in you like, it may capture a slight low spot if it floats for a few minutes I guess maybe.

Kryten_the_Titan

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82095881#Comment_82095881

Yes, enter the value you have calculated. From memory you can only buy your order value and not the number of units. Also, (from memory) the dirty price will be shown on the final order. Since Streamlit uses the last trading day closing (dirty) price don't expect the exact number of units as calculated - but it will be close enough.

Remember the £5 fee for purchasing. As your screenshot shows, exclude this fee value from the order and you should be good to go.

After executing your order the gilt can take up to 30 minutes to show up in your portfolio.

silvercar

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82096353#Comment_82096353

I bought through the Scottish Widows platform. There again you can only state an amount, not the number of units. They automatically deduct the £5 charge, so don’t deduct it yourself, or you will have a cash balance of £5 (like I did!)

GenX0212

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82097082#Comment_82097082

Don't you need to maintain a small cash balance to pay for platform charges anyway? Otherwise they may end up selling some of your bonds on you?