what is an example of yield 
as one measure for assessing risk consider an investor who wants to calculate the yield to worst ytw on a callable bond essentially this measures the lowest possible yield if the issuer opts to call the bond earlier than its maturity date the investor would find the bond s earliest callable date the date that the issuer must repay the principal and stop interest payments after determining this date the investor would calculate the ytw for the bond since the yield to worst is the return for a shorter time period it will indicate a lower return than the yield to maturity the bottom linethe yield of an asset is the amount of cash that an investor will receive in return for buying and holding an investment this is usually expressed as an annual percentage rate of return in stocks the yield is the percentage of a company s profits that is returned to shareholders in the form of dividends in bonds yield is the percentage in interest paid to the bondholders 