Yield to Maturity (YTM)

YTM is the single most widely used summary figure for comparing bonds. It incorporates the bond's current price, its face value (the amount paid at maturity), the size of its coupon payments (the regular interest payments), and the time remaining until maturity — combining all of those into one annualized percentage. When a bond trades at a discount to face value, its YTM will be higher than its coupon rate; when it trades at a premium, YTM will be lower.

For families comparing bonds with different prices, maturities, and coupon rates, YTM provides a common unit of measure. It is more informative than the coupon rate alone, which tells you nothing about what you actually paid for the bond. Our fixed income overview describes how YTM fits into broader bond evaluation.

The critical caveat: YTM is a promise, not a guarantee. It assumes the issuer makes every payment without default, and it assumes coupon payments are reinvested at the same YTM rate — an assumption that almost never holds precisely in practice. A common confusion is treating YTM as a certain outcome rather than a useful projection. For bonds carrying meaningful credit risk, the difference between promised YTM and realized return can be substantial if the issuer encounters financial difficulty.