What Is the Yield Curve? (2024)

The Yield Curve:The Basics

A "yield" is the return on an investment in a bond.

A "yield curve" is a comparison between long-term and short-term bonds that depicts the relationship between their rates of interest. The rate for a longer-term bond is usually higher than the rate for a shorter-term bond. This is because of the term premium, which reflects the amount investors expect to be compensated for lending for longer periods.

A "yield curve inversion" is when the rate for a longer-term bond is lower than the rate for a shorter-term bond.
These inversions have occurred before all U.S. recessions (and recessions in other countries as well) for the past 50 years.

What Is the Yield Curve? (1)

This FRED graph shows the most common "yield curve": the relationship between the 10-year Treasury note at constant maturity and the 2-year Treasury note at constant maturity.

Read more research on the yield curve here.

What Is the Yield Curve? (2024)

FAQs

What is the yield curve explained? ›

The yield curve allows fixed-income investors to compare similar Treasury investments with different maturity dates as a means to balance risk and reward. Additionally, investors use its shape to help forecast interest rates.

What is the yield curve quizlet? ›

What is the yield curve? A yield curve is a line that plots the interest rates, at a set point in time, of bonds having equal credit quality but differing maturity dates.

What is the yield curve typically? ›

A yield curve is typically upward sloping; as the time to maturity increases, so does the associated interest rate. The reason for that is that debt issued for a longer term generally carries greater risk because of the greater likelihood of inflation or default in the long run.

What can you tell from a yield curve? ›

What Is a Yield Curve? A yield curve is a line that plots yields, or interest rates, of bonds that have equal credit quality but differing maturity dates. The slope of the yield curve can predict future interest rate changes and economic activity.

What does the yield curve tell us about recession? ›

The yield curve — the difference between yields of 10- and two-year US Treasuries — has long been seen as a predictor of recession: When investors are fearful, they tend to buy up 10-year Treasuries, causing the yield to fall below the interest rate of shorter-term securities.

Is a high yield curve good or bad? ›

A steep curve also may signal higher inflation is on the horizon. That's because stronger economic growth often leads to price increases on goods and services as demand increases. Moreover, longer-maturity bond investors seek higher yields to justify keeping their money in the bond market for longer periods.

Why is the yield curve important quizlet? ›

Why is it important? Measure of the curvature in the relationship between bond prices and bond yields, that demonstrates how duration of bond changes as IR changes.

What is a yield quizlet? ›

Yield. The amount of product made during a chemical reaction. Theoretical Yield. The amount of product that should be made based on the limiting reactant; calculated on paper.

What is the yield curve slope? ›

The normal yield curve is a yield curve in which short-term debt instruments have a lower yield than long-term debt instruments of the same credit quality. An upward sloping yield curve suggests an increase in interest rates in the future. A downward sloping yield curve predicts a decrease in future interest rates.

What is the most important yield curve? ›

The steepness and direction of the yield curve are used to gauge future interest rate changes and the general health of the economy. There are a few types of yield curves, but the most important are normal, flat and inverted.

What are the three factors of the yield curve? ›

In short, based on (9.2), we can express the yield curve at any point of time as a linear combination of the level, slope and curvature factors, the dynamics of which drive the dynamics of the entire yield curve.

Which of these is the most common yield curve? ›

Upward yield curve

This is the most common shape because longer-maturity investors generally demand a premium to compensate the additional volatility associated with longer-duration investments. An upward sloping yield curve gives investors a sense of expected economic growth.

What does the yield curve show at any point in time? ›

The yield curve shows the interest rates that buyers of government debt demand in order to lend their money over various periods of time — whether overnight, for one month, 10 years or even 100 years.

What is the relationship between yield curve and inflation? ›

How does expected inflation affect the shape of the yield curve? The link between market interest rates and expected inflation is called the Fisher effect. ³ The Fisher effect implies that an increase in expected inflation could steepen the yield curve by raising the expected level of future short-term interest rates.

What does a treasury yield curve show in Quizlet? ›

The treasury yield curve shows the relationship among the interest rates on treasury bonds with different maturities. If the yield curve is upward sloping, than short term rates are lower than long-term rates.

When the yield curve is inverted, Quizlet? ›

Inverted yield curve occurs when longer-term interest rates are lower than shorter-term interest rates. From the perspective of pure expectations theory, short-term interest rates will be lower in the future than they are today.

What is yield curve Wikipedia? ›

In finance, the yield curve is a graph which depicts how the yields on debt instruments – such as bonds – vary as a function of their years remaining to maturity.

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Article information

Author: Tish Haag

Last Updated:

Views: 6493

Rating: 4.7 / 5 (47 voted)

Reviews: 86% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Tish Haag

Birthday: 1999-11-18

Address: 30256 Tara Expressway, Kutchburgh, VT 92892-0078

Phone: +4215847628708

Job: Internal Consulting Engineer

Hobby: Roller skating, Roller skating, Kayaking, Flying, Graffiti, Ghost hunting, scrapbook

Introduction: My name is Tish Haag, I am a excited, delightful, curious, beautiful, agreeable, enchanting, fancy person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.