Macaulay duration

For a fixed-income instrument, weight each interest and principal payment time by that payment's present value as a proportion of total price. Macaulay duration measures timing in years and helps derive price sensitivity. A zero-coupon bond's duration equals its maturity because all cash arrives at the end; a conventional positive-coupon bond normally has shorter duration than maturity. Duration depends on yield and cash-flow terms and does not capture credit changes or embedded-option effects by itself. Convert payment frequencies consistently when working from periodic yields.