Here we see the results of a 26 week T-Bill auction that took place on March 11th. Note that the issuance date is March 14th. This is three days after the auction, which is standard for these securities as the general auction schedule for US T-bills looks as follows, 4 week, 28 day and 8 week 56 day T-bills are typically auctioned on Tuesdays with the issue date, usually the following Thursday. 13 week, 91 day, and 26 week 182 day T-bills are usually auctioned on Mondays with the issue date on the following Thursday. Let's walk through the announcements and explain the terms and breakdown of the auction results.

This is a 182 day or 26 week T-bill, which explains the type and duration of the security being auctioned.

The CUSIP Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is a unique identification number assigned to this particular T-bill. In this case, the number is 912797KK2. Every bond or stock in the US and Canada has its own number.

The high rate is the highest accepted yield or interest rate in the auction for competitive bids. It's also called the Stop-out rate. In this auction, the high rate was 5.1%.

Since T-bills are discount securities, this rate is the discount from face value representing the highest yield among all of the accepted competitive bids, 76.61% of the bids submitted at the high rates were accepted. This indicates what portion of the bids at the highest rate were successful in securing the T-bills.

The price is 97.421667, which is the price corresponding to the high rate of 5.100%.

This means that successful bidders at this rate paid 97.421667% of the face value for the T-bill.

You might not think that 5.1% is the discount from 100 down to 97, but remember that this term was over 182 days, not a full year.

The investment rate is 5.308%. This rate represents the equivalent yield on a coupon bearing security. Essentially translating the discount yield into a comparable coupon bond rate.

The median rate is 5.08%, representing the middle of all accepted competitive bids. Half of the accepted bids were at this rate or lower, and the other half were at this rate or higher.

The low rate is the lowest accepted yield or discount rate at the auction, which was 4.99%. This is the lowest rate among all accepted competitive bids. And just to explain the term competitive bids. In a US T-bill auction, investors can bid for US T-bills, but in two fundamentally different ways.

non-competitive bidding in this bidders agree to accept whatever yield is determined at the auction. They indicate the amount of T-bills they want to purchase, but do not specify the yields they want. This guarantees the bidder will receive the full amount of the securities they request, but they must accept the yield resulting from the auction.

All non-competitive bidders receive the same yield, which is the high yield from the competitive bidding process. In competitive bidding bids specify the yield they're willing to accept. However, they risk not receiving any T-bills if their bid yield is too high. The US Treasury first fills all non-competitive bids and then allocates the highest competitive bids or the lowest yields until the total auction amount is filled.

The highest yield that the treasury accepts to fill the entire auction amount becomes the high yield 5.1% in this case, and all successful competitive bidders who offered that yield all lower, received the T-bills at the high yield.