The Sound of the Fed Manipulating Interest Rates

The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates today.

One of the methods they will use to raise rates will be by conducting reverse repurchase agreements through the New York Federal Reserve trading desk.

The NY Fed conducts its trades with a specially selected group  of Wall Street traders, Primary Dealers and others.

WSJ explains how the trades will be conducted:

The actual mechanics of the reverse repos are somewhat clunky. Traders at the New York Fed will press a series of buttons in a system called FedTrade that links it with Wall Street banks. Banks and others logging into FedTrade will hear a sequence of three musical notes—F-E-D—and see a pop-up window that signals the Fed is about to enter the market.

The bidding is open to more than 150 banks, money-market funds and government-sponsored enterprises including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but they can gain access only by using a special USB stick or token. Some traders bidding on behalf of more than one fund have complained about having to remove the token and insert a new one for each fund.

For your listening pleasure, here is the sound of the musical notes: F-E-D, that is, the sound of the Fed manipulating interest rates. (The fact that the notes match up perfectly with the lyrics "End the Fed" is purely coincidental):