Verbull Word of the day
Finance glossary

Risk-Free Rate

Risk · intermediate
Definition

The theoretical return on an investment with zero risk.

The risk-free rate is the return on a perfectly safe asset, typically proxied by short-term U.S. Treasury bills. It is the baseline against which risky returns are measured and a key input to models like CAPM and discounted cash flow valuation.

In a sentence

Analysts used the 3-month Treasury yield as the risk-free rate in their model.

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