Least Macaulay Duration?

Hi, I was doing some of the questions of the Kaplan books and I have doubt with this one:

Which of the following three bonds (similar except for yield and maturity) has the least Macaulay duration? A bond with:

  1. 5% yield and 10-year maturity.
  2. 5% yield and 20-year maturity.
  3. 6% yield and 10-year maturity.

The right answer is the third one but… What does the word “least” refer to? Thanks

Shortest.

Thanks man

My pleasure.

The longer the maturity and lower the yield, the greater the duration. So the option with the least duration will always be the one with the shortest maturity. In the instance two options have the same maturity, the one with the higher yield will have the lower duration.