What Treasury securities will the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Trading Desk (“the Desk”) purchase?
The Desk will concentrate purchases in the 2- to 10-year sectors of the nominal Treasury curve, although purchases will occur across the nominal Treasury and TIPS yield curves. The Desk will refrain from purchasing those securities trading with heightened scarcity value in the repo market for specific collateral, those securities maturing within five weeks, and those securities which are cheapest to deliver into the front-month Treasury futures contracts. Specific issues that will be excluded from consideration will be announced at the start of each operation. Currently, the Desk does not plan to purchase Treasury bills, STRIPS, or securities trading in the when-issued market.
