Home / Glossary / Bond Duration
FinanceBond Duration
A bond's price sensitivity to interest-rate changes.
Macaulay duration is the cash-flow-weighted average time to receive a bond's payments; modified duration converts it into a % price change per 1% rate move. Longer-duration bonds are far more rate-sensitive — the core of fixed-income risk.
Formula / theory
D_mac = Σ (t · PV_t) / Price D_mod = D_mac / (1 + y)
In Python
import numpy as np t = np.arange(1, n + 1) pv = cash_flows / (1 + y)**t macaulay = (t * pv).sum() / pv.sum() mod_duration = macaulay / (1 + y)