Interest

The compensation paid or to be paid for the use of money, usually expressed as an annual percentage rate. Interest rates change in response to a number of things including revised expectations about inflation, and such changes in the prevailing level of interest rates affects the value of all outstanding bonds.

Remarks: Bond funds including mutual funds (open-end and closed-end, actively managed and indexed), exchange-traded funds and unit investment trusts offer a convenient and affordable way to invest in a diversified portfolio of bonds, but a bond fund investment can differ from a bond investment in ways that are important to understand.