T Bills T Notes T Bonds

U.S. Treasury securities mainly differ by maturity.

Security	Maturity	Cash flow pattern
T-bills	1 year or less	Sold at a discount; no coupon
T-notes	2 to 10 years	Semiannual coupon payments
T-bonds	20 to 30 years	Semiannual coupon payments

All three are generally viewed as very low-credit-risk instruments because they are backed by the U.S. government.

Longer maturity usually means greater sensitivity to interest-rate changes, so T-bonds typically carry more price risk than T-bills.