The 5-year TIPS yield, every trading day since 2003

The real yield on 5-year Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities: what the shortest commonly auctioned TIPS guarantees above inflation. This is the rate that prices the near rungs of a ladder, and the tenor most sensitive to Fed policy. Updated daily from the Treasury's par real yield curve.

How the 5-year differs from the 10-year

The 5-year real yield moves with Federal Reserve policy far more than the longer tenors do. It spent most of 2012 through 2013 and 2020 through 2021 below -1.5%, deeper underwater than the 10-year ever went, because short real yields are where zero-rate policy bites hardest. It then repriced faster and further in 2022 for the same reason.

For a ladder builder the 5-year matters twice. It prices your near rungs directly, and it anchors the short end of the interpolated curve the ladder calculator uses. New 5-year TIPS are auctioned in April and October with reopenings in between; the exact dates sit on the Treasury's tentative auction schedule.