TOMO Report Help

Running the Report

Select the start and end dates to display, choose the desired report options, then click Run Report.  The following report options are available:

• Moving Average Days: enter the number of days in the moving average that the report should calculate and display.
• Graph Accepted / Maturing: check this box to include bars for the amount accepted and maturing each day in the graph.
• Include TIOs: check this box to include to include Treasury Term Investment Option operations in the output.  See this page for more information.
• Include TAF: check this box to include to include Term Auction Facility operations in the output.  See the Federal Reserve's TAF page for more information.

What's a Temporary Open Market Operation?

Every day the fed posts their temporary open market operations here:

http://www.newyorkfed.org/markets/omo/dmm/temp.cfm

These are intended to "add or drain reserves available to the banking system".  The amount "accepted" each day is the amount of reserves added that day.  But, these being temporary operations, they mature in 1-14 days (up to 28 days for some special operations) at which point the banks have to return the cash.  On a given day, there's a certain amount that has been added to the system that has not yet matured (doesn't have to be returned yet).  These amounts are said to be "sloshing" in this report.

In the chart, the tall, dark blue bars indicate the total amount the banks have to play with on a given day.  The hot pink bar is the amount accepted that day - the amount the fed is adding to the system.  The gray bar is the amount maturing that day, the amount the banks will have to return.  If the amount accepted is larger than the amount maturing, there is a net add for that day, and the dark blue bar for that day will be taller than the previous day by that amount.  If the amount maturing is more than the amount accepted, there's a drain and the amount "sloshing" will be reduced by the difference between the 2 compared to the previous day.

The fed announces the amount accepted each morning around 9:45.  For future days we know how much of what's currently out there will expire, but don't yet know how much will be accepted.  On most days if you view the report at 9:50 AM or later you will see the net amount added to or removed from the system that day.

Interpreting the Report

Your guess is as good as mine.