Concepts used to determine the rate of return an investor will receive if a long-term, interest-bearing investment, such as a bond, is held to its maturity date. It takes into account purchase price, redemption value, time to maturity, coupon yield and the time between interest payments. recognising time value of money, it is the discount rate at which the present value of all future payments would equal the present price of the bond (also referred to as "internal rate of return"). It is implicitly assumed that coupons are reinvested at the YTM rate. YTM can be approximated using a bond value table (also referred to as a "bond yield table") or can be determined using a programmable calculator equipped for bond mathematics calculations.