The following frequently asked questions provide further information about the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Survey of Market Expectations, which combined the Survey of Primary Dealers and the Survey of Market Participants.
Why were the Surveys of Primary Dealers and Market Participants combined into the Survey of Market Expectations?
As background, the Survey of Primary Dealers was established in 2002 to systematically collect market expectations about monetary policy and the U.S. economy. As market structures evolved and the New York Fed's Open Market Trading Desk’s (the Desk) capacity to administer surveys increased, the Survey of Market Participants was formally established in 2014 to collect a broader range of views.
While the surveys covered similar topics, they were initially kept separate to allow questions to differ between the panels and because the Survey of Primary Dealers already had a long track record.
Differences between the question sets in each survey diminished over time as the Survey of Market Participants became more established. With this in mind, and as part of the Desk’s ongoing efforts to make its processes and communications as streamlined and efficient as possible, the individual surveys were combined into the Survey of Market Expectations in January 2025.
How does combining the Surveys of Primary Dealers and Market Participants into the Survey of Market Expectations affect the survey results?
In addition to the release of the new survey's aggregated results, the Desk will also continue to publish the underlying data file which will include the more specific breakdown of responses attributable to primary dealers or market participants.
Where are the firms who were sent the Survey of Market Expectations listed on the New York Fed’s website?
Starting in January 2025, the Desk switched to listing respondent firm names in the results PDFs for the Survey of Market Expectations—as opposed to on the survey webpage—to better capture changes in panel composition over time.
How are firms selected to participate in the Survey of Market Expectations, and how has that approach evolved since the Desk first started fielding surveys?
The primary dealer survey respondents have always and continue to match the history of primary dealers. Meanwhile, the approach to non-primary dealer respondents has changed over time.
Today, the Desk aims for the composition of non-primary dealer respondents to reflect the broad composition of U.S. financial market institutions.
Prior to 2025, initial eligibility for non-primary dealers was limited to a subset of firms associated with the following New York Fed advisory and sponsored groups:
- Investor Advisory Committee on Financial Markets
- Foreign Exchange Committee
- Treasury Market Practices Group
- Buyside General Counsel Committee
As the Desk has become better able to efficiently distribute, process, and validate surveys, it expanded the non-primary dealer survey participants in line with its longstanding goal to accurately represent the market.
Starting in January 2025, the Desk expanded the non-primary dealer survey panel to include types of firms that were previously underrepresented relative to the broad composition of U.S. financial markets.
How do you measure the composition of the U.S. market for the purposes of determining the types of non-primary dealer firms that are asked to participate in the Survey of Market Expectations?
The current composition of U.S. financial markets is estimated using a variety of data on such measures as transactions and asset levels, including, for instance, data from the Federal Reserve Financial Accounts of the United States (Z.1), among other sources. These quantitative measures are complemented by the Desk’s market intelligence about the key categories of institutions in markets that are core to monetary policy implementation, transmission, and market functioning.
Who should I contact if my firm is interested in participating in the survey? How frequently is the survey panel assessed for additional participants?
The Desk reassesses survey participation regularly to ensure the panel remains representative.
Those who have questions about participating in the Survey of Market Expectations can reach out to MarketIntelligence@ny.frb.org.
Which firms participated in the Survey of Market Participants?
These firms participated in the Survey of Market Participants at some point from 2014 through 2024.
- AGNC Investment Corp.
- Annaly Capital Management, Inc.
- Apollo Management
- Appaloosa Management L.P.
- Ariel Investments
- Assured Investment Management (formerly Blue Mountain Capital)
- Bessemer Investment Management
- BlackRock
- BNP Paribas Asset Management (formerly FFTW)
- Brevan Howard
- BTG Pactual
- Caxton Associates LP
- Citadel LLC
- Cowen Group
- Credit Suisse Group
- D. E. Shaw & Co., L.P.
- Eaton Vance
- Eton Park Capital Management
- Fidelity Investments
- Fortress Investment Group
- Graham Capital Management
- Guggenheim Partners
- Harvard Management Co.
- Invesco Ltd. (formerly Oppenheimer Funds)
- J.P. Morgan Asset Management
- Kynikos Associates
- Mellon Capital
- Microsoft Corporation
- Millennium Management, LLC
- Moore Capital Management LLC
- NWI Management
- PIMCO
- QFR Capital Management
- Soros Fund Management
- Teacher Retirement System of Texas
- The Carlyle Group
- The Travelers Companies, Inc.
- The University of Texas/Texas A&M Investment Management Company
- Tudor Investment Corporation
- Vanguard
- Wellington Management
