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? ›

Getting the price from the interest rate

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

Price = Face value (1 – (discount rate x time)/360)

What is the tbillprice formula in Excel? ›

=TBILLPRICE(settlement, maturity, discount)

The TBILLLPRICE function uses the following arguments: Settlement (required argument) – This is the settlement date of the T-bill. The security settlement date is the date after the issue date when the T-bill is traded to the buyer.

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.

How much does Warren Buffett have in Treasury bills? ›

The Wall Street bank estimated that Berkshire's $158 billion in T-bills at the end of March accounted for 3% of all outstanding short-term government bills.

How are T-bill prices quoted? ›

Remember - Treasury bills are quoted in yield form, not with prices. Yields are inversely related to prices - the lower the yield, the higher the price, and vice versa. Therefore, a yield of 3.2% will represent a lower-priced T-bill than one with a yield of 3.1%.

How are T bill yields typically computed? ›

Yield on Treasury Bills

The difference between the face value and purchase price amounts to interest earned, which can be used to calculate a Treasury bill's yield.

What are the current T-bill rates? ›

Treasury Yield Curve
1 Month Treasury Rate5.47%
10 Year Treasury Rate4.43%
10 Year-3 Month Treasury Yield Spread-1.09%
10-2 Year Treasury Yield Spread-0.44%
20 Year Treasury Rate4.64%
2 more rows

Which function calculates the fair market value for a $100 T-bill? ›

The TBILLPRICE function calculates the price per $100 face value for a Treasury bill. It is important to note that the TBILLPRICE function only works for Treasury bills and not other types of securities. The TBILLPRICE function is a useful tool for investors who are looking to track the prices of Treasury bills.

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

The yield to maturity (YTM) is the expected annual rate of return earned on a bond, assuming the debt security is held until maturity. The yield to maturity (YTM) is calculated by the following formula: [Annual Coupon + (FV – PV) ÷ Number of Compounding Periods] ÷ [(FV + PV) ÷ 2].

How do you convert Treasury yield to price? ›

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.

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

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 much does a 1 month Treasury bill yield? ›

Basic Info. 1 Month Treasury Rate is at 5.48%, compared to 5.50% the previous market day and 5.28% 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.

Why people don t invest in Treasury bill? ›

Taxes: Treasury bills are exempt from state and local taxes but still subject to federal income taxes. That makes them less attractive holdings for taxable accounts. Investors in higher tax brackets might want to consider short-term municipal securities instead.

How do you profit from Treasury bills? ›

What Type of Interest Payments Are Earned on a Treasury Bill? The only interest paid will be when the bill matures. At that time, you are given the full face value. T-bills are zero-coupon bonds usually sold at a discount, and the difference between the purchase price and the par amount is your accrued interest.

What is the largest Treasury bill you can buy? ›

T-bills sell in increments of $100 up to a maximum of $10 million, and you can buy them directly from the government through its TreasuryDirect website, or through a brokerage, bank or self-directed retirement account, like a Roth IRA.

How much will I make on a 3 month treasury bill? ›

3 Month Treasury Bill Rate is at 5.25%, compared to 5.25% the previous market day and 5.16% 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.

How do you calculate treasury stock price? ›

So if 60,000 shares are outstanding but only 50,000 are issued, then the remaining 10,000 are treasury shares. From there, you can take the treasury stock line item and divide it by the calculated number of treasury shares. The result will be the average price the company paid for treasury stock.

What is the bid price of a treasury bill? ›

The answer is: B. the price at which the dealer in Treasury bills is willing to buy the bill. The bid price is the price dealers can buy it for. The ask is what sellers are willing to sell it for.

What are today's rates on Treasury bills? ›

Treasury Yields
NameCouponYield
GB12:GOV 12 Month0.005.17%
GT2:GOV 2 Year4.884.89%
GT5:GOV 5 Year4.504.46%
GT10:GOV 10 Year4.384.43%
3 more rows

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