The Fed Funds Market During the Quantitative Tightening of 2017-19

The effective federal funds rate (EFFR) declined by about 10 basis points on every month end from 2016 to February 2018. Then, in March 2018, this pattern suddenly stopped (Figure 1). This Note discusses the dynamics behind the federal funds market, including its relationship with repo markets, to explain this change and to better understand the behavior of money markets during the period of the Federal Reserve’s quantitative tightening between October 2017 and September 2019.