What is High/Median/Low Rate of US Treasury Bill?

High/Median/Low Rate of US Treasury Bill refers to 3 thresholds of discount rates used by The US Department of the Treasury during the T-Bill auction process.

When a T-Bills is auctioned by The US Department of the Treasury, it will go through a competitive bidding process by many tenders (investors and institutions). Bidding offers are submitted as discount rates instead of discounted prices.

When the bidding process is ended, The US Department of the Treasury will announce the highest accepted discount rate. Bidding offers will be fully tendered, partially tendered or rejected:

• Full Tendered - Offered discount rate is less than the highest accepted discount rate.
• Full Tendered or Partially Tendered - Offered discount rate is equal to the highest accepted discount rate.
• Rejected - Offered discount rate is greater than the highest accepted discount rate.

After the auction, The US Department of the Treasury will release the auction results to the public with 3 thresholds of discount rates on bidding offers:

High Rate - The highest accepted discount rate
Median Rate - 50% accepted at or blow this discount rate
Low Rate - 5% accepted at or blow this discount rate

Price - The lowest accepted price converted from "High Rate"

For example, results of the 13-week T-Bill auctioned on December 30, 2024 show:

Release Date: December 30, 2024 (the auction date)
Term and Type of Security: 91-Day Bill (13-week)
CUSIP Number: 912797MV6

High Rate: 4.230% (the highest accepted discount rate)
Price: 98.930750 (the lowest accepted price)
Median Rate: 4.180% (50% accepted at or blow this discount rate)
Low Rate: 4.100% (5% accepted at or blow this discount rate)

We can verify that the Price 98.930750 was converted from the High Rate 4.230% using the price calculation formula given the previous tutorial:

$P=F\times (1-d\times {\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{Days}}{360}})$
$P=100.00\times (1-\mathrm{0.04230}\times {\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{91}}{360}})$
$P=98.93075$

Below is the auction results released by The US Department of the Treasury on December 30, 2024 for T-Bill 912797MV6:

You can also verify that the price reported in the auction result is the price for the highest accepted discount rate using our conversion tool. Just click this link "T-Bill 912797MV6 settled on 2025-01-02 with a discount rate of 4.230%", you will see the price of $98.930750 displayed.

⇒ BEY (Bond Equivalent Yield) of Short US Treasury Bill

⇐ Discount Rate of US Treasury Bill

⇑ Performance Measurements of US Treasury Bills

⇑⇑ US Treasury Securities