When Markets Learn About Unscheduled FOMC Meetings

Summary

The document asks whether market participants learn about unscheduled Federal Open Market Committee meetings before they occur. The included answer says investors know the scheduled meeting calendar, while emergency meetings are disclosed afterward through a Federal Reserve press release. It describes the announcement as a surprise to markets and says advance knowledge would be improper and illegal.

The material offers a brief account of information timing around emergency central-bank decisions, rather than a trading strategy or analysis of resulting price moves. It gives no event data, examples, or evidence beyond the answer’s assertion, and it does not detail the release process or distinguish among different emergency-meeting circumstances. Its practical implication is limited: an unscheduled meeting should not be treated as a publicly known catalyst before its announcement based on the information presented here.

Key ideas

• The included answer says the public knows the scheduled FOMC calendar in advance.
• It states that emergency meeting information reaches investors through a later Federal Reserve announcement.
• The answer characterizes advance disclosure as improper and illegal.
• The document provides no market data or analysis of price responses to unscheduled meetings.

Tags

# FOMC Unscheduled Meetings


# FOMC Unscheduled Meetings












If you look at the FOMC announcement schedule here, you will see that since 2011, there have been 4 unscheduled meetings. By any chance, though they are "unscheduled" do market participants know one day or few hours before the meeting that there will be an actual "unscheduled" meeting or it is known to market participants only after the meeting took place?

## Answer by nbbo2 (score 6, accepted)

https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/18017

Investors only know about the scheduled meetings. They only find out about the emergency meetings afterwards when the Fed issues a press release the next day at say 8am, which surprises the market. It would be highly improper and illegal for anyone to know about it in advance.

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This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.