How to Calculate the Price of Treasury Bills | The Motley Fool (2024)

Treasury bills are among the safest investments in the market. They're backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government, and they come in maturities ranging from four weeks to one year. When buying Treasury bills, you'll find that quotes are typically given in terms of their discount, so you'll need to calculate the actual price.

How to Calculate the Price of Treasury Bills | The Motley Fool (1)

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The calculation

Getting the price from the interest rate

To calculate the price, you need to know the number of days until maturity and the prevailing interest rate. Take the number of days until the Treasury bill matures and multiply it by the interest rate in percent. Take the result and divide it by 360, as the Treasury uses interest-rate assumptions using the common accounting standard of 360-day years.

Interest Rate

An interest rate is the cost of borrowing money or the premium you get for lending money. Learn how interest rates affect the economy.

Then, subtract the resulting number from 100. That will give you the price of a Treasury bill with a face value of $100. If you want to invest more, then you can adjust the figure accordingly.

As a simple example, say you want to buy a $1,000 Treasury bill with 180 days to maturity, yielding 1.5%. To calculate the price, take 180 days and multiply by 1.5 to get 270. Then, divide by 360 to get 0.75, and subtract 100 minus 0.75. The answer is 99.25. Because you're buying a $1,000 Treasury bill instead of one for $100, multiply 99.25 by 10 to get the final price of $992.50.

Keep in mind that the Treasury doesn't make separate interest payments on Treasury bills. Instead, the discounted price accounts for the interest that you'll earn. For instance, in the preceding example, you'll receive $1,000 at the end of the 180-day period. Because you only paid $992.50, the remaining $7.50 represents the interest on your investment over that time frame.

Treasury bill quotes can look complicated, but it's pretty easy to figure out the price. With just a few simple calculations, you can convert quotes to Treasury-bill prices, and know what you'll need to pay to invest.

To get more information on how to start investing -- in Treasury bills and other investment instruments -- head on over to our Broker Center.

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How to Calculate the Price of Treasury Bills | The Motley Fool (2024)

FAQs

How to Calculate the Price of Treasury Bills | The Motley Fool? ›

As a simple example, say you want to buy a $1,000 Treasury bill with 180 days to maturity, yielding 1.5%. To calculate the price, take 180 days and multiply by 1.5 to get 270. Then, divide by 360 to get 0.75, and subtract 100 minus 0.75. The answer is 99.25.

How do you calculate the price of a Treasury bill? ›

Take the number of days until the Treasury bill matures, and multiply it by the interest rate in percent. Take the result and divide it by 360, as the Treasury uses interest-rate assumptions using the common accounting standard of 360-day years. Then, subtract the resulting number from 100.

What is the price of a Treasury bill with a face value of $100000 yield on a bank discount basis of 5.89% and 100 days to maturity? ›

For the 100-day Treasury bill with a face value (F) of $100,000, if the yield on a bank discount basis (Yd) is quoted as 5.89%, D is equal to: D = Yd (F) = 0.0589($100,000 = $1,636.11. Price = $100,000 – $1,636.11 = $98,363.89.

What is the T-bill calculator in Excel? ›

The TBILLYIELD Function[1] is categorized under Excel FINANCIAL functions. It will calculate the yield on a Treasury bill. In financial analysis, TBILLYIELD can be useful in calculating the yield on a Treasury bill when we are given the start date, end date, and price.

How much does a $10,000 Treasury bill cost? ›

They are sold at a discount to face value, and the difference between the discounted price and face value is your return on investment. For example, if you buy a 12-week T-bill with a face value of $10,000 for $9,800, the difference of $200 is your return for holding the security for 12 weeks.

How much do you make on a 3 month T bill? ›

3 Month Treasury Bill Rate is at 5.25%, compared to 5.25% the previous market day and 5.18% last year. This is higher than the long term average of 4.19%. The 3 Month Treasury Bill Rate is the yield received for investing in a government issued treasury security that has a maturity of 3 months.

What is the difference between interest rate and yield on treasury bills? ›

Key Takeaways. Yield is the annual net profit that an investor earns on an investment. The interest rate is the percentage charged by a lender for a loan. The yield on new investments in debt of any kind reflects interest rates at the time they are issued.

How to calculate Treasury bill yield calculator? ›

To calculate yield, subtract the bill's purchase price from its face value and then divide the result by the bill's purchase price. Finally, multiply your answer by 100 to convert it to a percentage.

How do you calculate yield to maturity on a Treasury bill? ›

The yield to maturity (YTM) is calculated by the following formula: [Annual Coupon + (FV – PV) ÷ Number of Compounding Periods] ÷ [(FV + PV) ÷ 2]. The YTM metric offers bondholders with the option to estimate the return on a bond instrument, as well as measure the impact on the portfolio return.

What is the yield on a 1m Treasury bill? ›

1 Month Treasury Rate is at 5.50%, compared to 5.50% the previous market day and 5.69% last year.

What is the T calculator? ›

t-statistic Calculator. Use the t-statistic calculator (t-value calculator or t test statistic calculator) to compute the t-value of a given dataset using its sample mean, population mean, standard deviation and sample size.

Are Treasury bills better than CDs? ›

If you're saving for a goal less than a year away: If you're saving money for a goal with a short-time horizon, T-bills can make more sense than CDs. They provide a higher APY than savings accounts, and they're more liquid than CDs.

Is it better to buy Treasury bills at auction or on secondary market? ›

There are several ways to buy Treasuries. For many people, TreasuryDirect is a good option; however, retirement savers and investors who already have brokerage accounts are often better off buying bonds on the secondary market or with exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

What happens when a T-bill matures? ›

When the bill matures, you are paid its face value. You can hold a bill until it matures or sell it before it matures.

What is the price of a 1 month treasury bill? ›

1 Month Treasury Rate (I:1MTCMR)

1 Month Treasury Rate is at 5.56%, compared to 5.51% the previous market day and 5.95% last year. This is higher than the long term average of 1.46%. The 1 Month Treasury Rate is the yield received for investing in a US government issued treasury bill that has a maturity of 1 month.

What is the formula for the treasury bill rate with real rate and inflation rate? ›

Now we can use the exact Fisher effect formula to calculate the exact real rate of interest: Exact Real Rate = (1 + Nominal Rate) / (1 + Inflation Rate) - 1 Exact Real Rate = 1 + 0.08 1 + 0.06 - 1 First, add 1 to both the nominal rate and the inflation rate: Exact Real Rate = - 1 Next, divide 1.08 by 1.06: Exact Real ...

What is the yield on a 52 week treasury bill? ›

BondsYieldDay
US 52W5.200.003%
US 2Y4.960.009%
US 3Y4.730.004%
US 5Y4.53-0.007%
11 more rows

How are taxes calculated on Treasury bills? ›

Key Takeaways

Interest from Treasury bills (T-bills) is subject to federal income taxes but not state or local taxes. The interest income received in a year is recorded on Form 1099-INT. Investors can opt to have up to 50% of their Treasury bills' interest earnings automatically withheld.

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