Peeing in a trash can instead of walking 50 feet to the bathroom is not funny. Raiding you neighborâs cooler is not funny. Building an 8 foot tall bonfire is not funny. Asking if you can wear the park rangerâs hat is not funny. Guess whose job it is to tell them that they are not funny: the park ranger.
The main difference between yields and interest rates is that each term refers to different financial instruments. Yield commonly refers to the dividend, interest or return the investor receives from a security like a stock or bond, and is usually reported as an annual figure.
Your bond has a 4% coupon rate. The coupons are fixed; no matter what price the bond trades for, the interest payments always equal $40 per year. The coupon rate is often different from the yield. A bond's yield is more accurately thought of as the effective rate of return based on the actual market value of the bond. At face value, the coupon rate and yield equal each other. If you sell your $1,000 bond at a $100 premium, the bond's yield is now equal to $40 / $1,100, or 3.63%.