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Journal Article
Trends in federal funds rate volatility
The behavior of the fed funds rate-a key monetary policy target and a benchmark for short-term interest rates-is closely watched by many market participants. After a decade marked by periodic bouts of high volatility in the funds rate, volatility has declined sharply since 2001. An analysis of the major factors influencing the rate's behavior shows that some of the forces behind the current fall in volatility first emerged in response to the earlier increases.
Journal Article
Monetary policy and open market operations during 1994
Journal Article
The Federal Reserve's contingency financing plan for the century date change
With the approach of the new millennium last year, many market participants resolved to limit their exposure to Y2K-related risks by cutting back normal trading activities. The Federal Reserve foresaw that the widespread adoption of such a strategy could lead to serious liquidity problems in key financing markets. Consequently, the Fed undertook to create a Standby Financing Facility that would provide securities dealers with a form of backup funding and ease market anxieties about year-end credit conditions.
Journal Article
Open market operations during 1997
In 1997 the Trading Desk at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York managed reserve conditions with the objective of maintaining the federal funds rate around the level desired by the Federal Open Market Committee. In 1997 the portfolio of domestic securities in the System Open Market Account expanded by a record $41 billion (excluding all temporary operations), ending the year at $448 billion. Outright purchases of Treasury securities totaled $44 billion, offset to a small degree by redemptions of some Treasury and federal agency issues. The growth in the portfolio during 1997 was significantly ...
Journal Article
Intraday trading in the overnight federal funds market
Transaction-level data for the federal funds market provide a rare look at the intraday behavior of trade volume and prices. An analysis of the data reveals that trade volume exhibits large swings over the course of the day while prices remain fairly stable, with rate volatility rising sharply only in the late afternoon. The analysis underscores the important role played by institutional deadlines-most notably, the close of trading-in driving movements in this market.
Journal Article
Falling reserve balances and the federal funds rate
The growth of "sweeps"--a banking practice in which depository institutions shift funds out of customer accounts subject to reserve requirements--has reduced the required balances held by banks in their accounts at the Federal Reserve. This development could lead to greater volatility in the federal funds rate as banks try to manage their accounts with very low balances. An analysis of the evidence suggests that the volatility of the funds rate is rising slightly, but not enough to disrupt the federal funds market or affect the implementation of monetary policy.
Journal Article
Highlights of domestic open market operations during 1998
The Trading Desk at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York uses open market operations to implement the policy directives of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). The FOMC expresses its short-term objective for open market operations as a target level for the federal funds rate--the interest rate at which depository institutions lend balances at the Federal Reserve to other depository institutions. To keep the federal funds rate near the level specified by the FOMC, the Desk uses open market operations to bring the supply of balances at the Federal Reserve into line with the demand for ...
Report
Reserve levels and intraday federal funds rate behavior
We analyze the impact of aggregate reserve levels on the intraday behavior of the federal funds rate over a sample period extending from 2002 to 2005. We study both how the reserve levels accumulated earlier in a maintenance period influence the morning level of the funds rate relative to the target set by the FOMC, and how same-day reserve levels as well as the reserve levels accumulated earlier affect intraday movements of the funds rate. The impact of recurring calendar events on the behavior of the federal funds rate is also explored. In general, we find a negative relationship between ...