Target duration
The level of rate sensitivity a manager holds deliberately, rather than inherits as the accidental result of a set of bonds.
How to read the number
Setting it means choosing not the bonds but the size of one's bet on the movement of interest rates.
When the metric lies
Portfolio duration declines on its own as time passes, so without periodic rebuilding the actual figure drifts away from the stated one without anyone noticing.
Also known as: duration target, duration mandate