What is "yield to maturity"

alt. 1 (context finance English) The internal rate of return on a bond held to maturity, assuming scheduled payment of principal and interest. 2 (context legal English) A calculation of yield on a bond that takes into account the capital gain or loss on a discount bond or capital loss on a premium bond. In the case of a discount bond, the yield-to-maturity, YTM, is higher than the current yield, or the coupon yield. The reverse is true for a premium bond with YTM lower than both current yield and coupon yield. n. 1 (context finance English) The internal rate of return on a bond held to maturity, assuming scheduled payment of principal and interest. 2 (context legal English) A calculation of yield on a bond that takes into account the capital gain or loss on a discount bond or capital loss on a premium bond. In the case of a discount bond, the yield-to-maturity, YTM, is higher than the current yield, or the coupon yield. The reverse is true for a premium bond with YTM lower than both current yield and coupon yield.

The Yield to maturity (YTM), book yield or redemption yield of a bond or other fixed-interest security, such as gilts, is the internal rate of return (IRR, overall interest rate) earned by an investor who buys the bond today at the market price, assuming that the bond will be held until maturity, and that all coupon and principal payments will be made on schedule. Yield to maturity is the discount rate at which the sum of all future cash flows from the bond (coupons and principal) is equal to the price of the bond. The YTM is often given in terms of Annual Percentage Rate (A.P.R.), but more usually market convention is followed. In a number of major markets (such as gilts) the convention is to quote annualised yields with semi-annual compounding (see compound interest); thus, for example, an annual effective yield of 10.25% would be quoted as 10.00%, because 1.05 × 1.05 = 1.1025.