Financial Functions: Continuous/Periodic Compounding Conversions

The next two financial functions are used to convert a continuously compounded interest rate to an equivalent periodically compounded interest rate, and vice-versa. 

In these functions the first argument (either ann. rate or cont. rate) is the fractional interest rate (expressed as either a fraction or a percentage), and the second argument (#/yr) is the number of times the equivalent periodically compounded rate is compounded per year:

 

Function

Description

Definition

pc2cc(ann. rate, #/yr)

Converts an annual interest rate (ann.rate) that is compounded #/yr per year to an equivalent continuously compounded interest rate.

compound1

cc2pc(cont. rate, #/yr)

Converts a continuously compounded interest rate (cont.rate) to an equivalent periodically compounded annual rate that is compounded #/yr per year.

ann. rate (Arate): Must be greater than or equal to zero. Can be a scalar or an array
cont. rate (Crate): Must be greater than or equal to zero. Can be a scalar or an array
#/yr (n):  Must be a positive scalar.

For example, the following expression computes the continuously compounded interest rate that is equivalent to an annual interest rate of 5%, compounded daily:

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