Glossary · market terms in plain English

Yield to maturity

The full accounting on a bond: the annualized return if you buy at today’s price, collect every coupon, and are repaid the face value at the end — coupons plus the slow pull of a discounted price back up to par, or a premium price down to it. Current yield counts only the coupons; yield to maturity counts everything — and it is a held-to-maturity figure, not a promise: sell earlier, and the see-saw, not the schedule, decides your return. Taught in: Bonds and rates →