what is the 30 year treasury 
the 30 year treasury is a u s treasury debt obligation that has a maturity of 30 years the 30 year treasury used to be the bellwether u s bond but now most consider the 10 year treasury to be the benchmark understanding the 30 year treasurythe u s government borrows money from investors by issuing debt securities through its treasury department debt instruments that can be purchased from the government include treasury bills t bills notes and treasury inflation protected securities tips t bills are marketable securities issued for terms of less than a year and treasury notes are issued with maturities from two to 10 years tips are marketable securities whose principal is adjusted by changes in the consumer price index cpi when there is inflation the principal increases when deflation sets in the principal decreases 1 u s treasury securities with longer term maturities can be purchased as u s savings bonds or treasury bonds special considerationstreasury bonds are long term debt securities issued with a maturity of 20 years or 30 years from the issue date these marketable securities pay interest semi annually or every six months until they mature at maturity the investor is paid the face value of the bond the 30 year treasury will generally pay a higher interest rate than shorter treasuries to compensate for the additional risks inherent in the longer maturity however when compared to other bonds treasuries are relatively safe because they are backed by the u s government 2the price and interest rate of the 30 year treasury bond is determined at an auction where it is set at either par premium or discount to par if the yield to maturity ytm is greater than the interest rate the price of the bond will be issued at a discount if the ytm is equal to the interest rate the price will be equal to par finally if the ytm is less than the interest rate the treasury bond price will be sold at a premium to par in a single auction a bidder can buy up to 5 million in bonds by non competitive bidding or up to 35 of the initial offering amount by competitive bidding in addition the bonds are sold in increments of 100 and the minimum purchase is 100 330 year treasury vs savings bondsu s savings bonds specifically series ee savings bonds are non marketable securities that earn interest for 30 years interest isn t paid out periodically instead interest accumulates and the investor receives everything when they redeem the savings bond the bond can be redeemed after one year but if they are sold before five years from the purchase date the investor will lose the last three months interest 4 for example an investor who sells the savings bond after 24 months will only receive interest for 21 months because the u s is seen as a very low risk borrower many investors see 30 year treasury interest rates as indicative of the state of the wider bond market normally the interest rate decreases with greater demand for 30 year treasury securities and rises with lower demand the s p u s treasury bond current 30 year index is a one security index comprising the most recently issued 30 year u s treasury bond it is a market value weighted index that seeks to measure the performance of the treasury bond market 5