the interest received from a security's last interest payment date up to the current date or date of
valuation; an investor who sells a security with accrued interest will not receive that interest until the next interest payment date after the sale; the buyer receives all interest from the last payment date, including any interest that accrued while the
bond was owned by the prior investor; the buyer then pays the seller all interest that has accrued from the last payment date up to but not including the settlement date for the trade; in a
bond ladder's summary
calculations, the accrued interest field refers to the sum of all accrued interest from the securities in the ladder that will need to be paid if the ladder is purchased on that day