About one or two hours after the auction closes, the Treasury Department publishes an auction result announcement on their web site. They also keep an archive of the results from previous auctions. There are many numbers in the auction result. You should pay particular attention to four numbers and one date.

If you are not familiar with inflation indexed bonds Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS), I suggest you start with a mutual fund or ETF, then progress to participating in a few TIPS auctions before you jump into buying TIPS on the secondary market. That way you will understand better how they work. If you are ready for the secondary market, here we go.

The price and yield quotes are perhaps the source of most confusion about buying individual TIPS on the secondary market. Unlike regular ("nominal") bonds, TIPS are quoted in real price and real yield while the actual purchase is done with nominal dollars.

Like when you make any other investment, you want to buy TIPS when prices are low and yields are high. There are several places where you can monitor the TIPS market.