---
title: "Yield to maturity"
description: "Yield to maturity is the weighted average annualised return a bond fund's holdings would earn if held to maturity at today's prices, before fees; a snapshot of the portfolio's yield."
canonical: https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/yield-to-maturity
published: 2026-09-04
updated: 2026-09-04
publisher: FundFacts API
---

# Yield to maturity (YTM, Portfolio yield, Yield to worst, Gross redemption yield)

> Yield to maturity is the weighted average annualised return a bond fund's holdings would earn if held to maturity at today's prices, before fees; a snapshot of the portfolio's yield.

**Yield to maturity (YTM)** for a bond fund is the weighted average of the yields to maturity of the bonds it holds: the annualised return each bond would deliver if bought at its current price and held to maturity with all coupons paid. It is a snapshot at a date, quoted gross of fees and in the portfolio's base currency. Factsheets may also show **yield to worst**, which assumes callable bonds are redeemed at the least favourable date, and is therefore the more conservative figure.

YTM is not the same as [distribution yield](https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/distribution-yield), which measures the income actually paid out over the past twelve months relative to the NAV.

## Why it matters

For a bond fund, YTM is the best single indicator of what the portfolio is currently priced to earn, and it moves inversely with prices: when yields rise, existing holdings fall in value, by roughly the fund's [duration](https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/duration) times the yield change. Read together with duration and [credit quality](https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/credit-quality), it gives a compact picture of a bond fund's return potential and risk, which is why fixed income screeners lead with these three numbers.

## In the API

The headline yield and its companion metrics are returned for bond and multi-asset funds where the fund house publishes them.

```json
{
  "headlineMetrics": {
    "yieldToMaturity": 4.35,
    "modifiedDuration": 6.2
  },
  "profile": { "creditQuality": "investment grade", "rateSensitivity": "medium" }
}
```

Example values; yield is a percentage per year. The maturity and rating breakdowns are in `maturity` and `creditQuality`.

## Common pitfalls

- YTM is gross; subtract the [ongoing charges](https://fundfactsapi.com/glossary/ongoing-charges) to approximate what investors could receive.
- It assumes no defaults. High-yield portfolios will earn less than their YTM if defaults occur.
- A hedged share class earns the yield adjusted for the interest rate differential between currencies.

## In the FundFacts API payload

- `headlineMetrics.yieldToMaturity`
- `headlineMetrics.modifiedDuration`
- `maturity`
- `creditQuality`
- `profile.creditQuality`
- `profile.rateSensitivity`

## About FundFacts API

FundFacts turns any fund or ETF ISIN into one dated factsheet (fees and KID costs, the 1–7 risk indicator, holdings, sector and country exposure, returns) read from the fund house's own documents: as a client-ready PDF under your firm's name for advisers and wealth managers, as JSON through its API for developers, or inside ChatGPT and Claude through its MCP server.

FundFacts works inside ChatGPT and Claude as a connector (a remote MCP server): ask about any fund or ETF by ISIN, ticker or name and the assistant answers from FundFacts' dated figures, fees, risk, holdings, exposure and returns, with fund cards, side-by-side comparisons, holdings overlap and portfolio look-through.

- Free API key, no card: https://fundfactsapi.com/signup
- Documentation: https://fundfactsapi.com/docs (OpenAPI: https://fundfactsapi.com/openapi.json)
- MCP server: https://fundfactsapi.com/api/mcp (set-up for every client: https://fundfactsapi.com/mcp-server)
- Pricing: https://fundfactsapi.com/pricing
- Site index for AI assistants: https://fundfactsapi.com/llms.txt
- Informational data, not investment advice.