Open market operations
The purchases and sales of securities the New York Fed uses to keep the federal funds rate inside the FOMC's target range.
The FOMC votes on a target. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s trading desk is directed to achieve it, using the tools the committee authorises in its implementation note.
In the current framework, the primary levers are administered rates — the interest paid on reserve balances, and the rate offered at the overnight reverse repurchase facility — which together set a floor and a soft ceiling on where the funds rate can trade. Outright purchases and sales are used less for day-to-day rate control than they were before 2008.
This is the implementation half of a rate decision — the mechanism that turns the committee's announced target into the rate that actually prevails.