Is there a press conference after every FOMC meeting?

Yes, the Chair holds a press conference after each scheduled meeting, starting at 2:30 p.m. Eastern. Unscheduled meetings do not necessarily include one.

Why do futures move so much during the press conference if the decision is already known?

The decision is only part of the information. The Chair's explanation of risks and future steps changes expectations for the next meetings, which is what rates and index futures price. Thin liquidity during the Q&A amplifies the moves.

FOMC press conference: trading the Fed Chair's Q&A in futures

After each scheduled FOMC meeting the Federal Reserve Chair holds a press conference, starting at 2:30 p.m. Eastern, thirty minutes after the policy statement. It has no single release second: answers arrive over roughly an hour, so futures can trend, reverse or chop through it, and the order flow is read as a continuous auction rather than as a spike.

Senzoukria · Economic events · Updated September 2026

At a glance

Held by: Chair of the Federal Reserve, after each scheduled FOMC meeting
Usual time: 2:30 p.m. ET (1:30 p.m. Chicago), after the 2:00 p.m. statement
Format: Opening statement, then questions from journalists
Duration: Typically about an hour
Contracts in scope: ZN, ZB, ZT; ES, NQ; 6E, 6J; GC

Why the press conference matters after the statement

The statement is short and carefully negotiated among Committee members. The press conference is where the Chair explains the reasoning, frames the risks and answers questions about the next steps. Markets listen for whether the Chair confirms, softens or hardens the message of the statement, and for any hint about the pace or timing of future moves.

Because the opening statement is read first and the questions follow, the information arrives in pieces. A single answer can change the reading of the day.

What the market listens for

Guidance on the next meetings: whether a move is seen as likely, possible or not under consideration.
The balance of risks: which side of the mandate, inflation or employment, the Chair emphasizes.
Balance sheet policy: the pace of runoff or any change to it.
Reaction to recent data: how the latest CPI, payrolls or PCE figures are described.
Tone on financial conditions: comments about asset prices or credit conditions.

How the order flow differs from a data release

A data release has a trigger second, a burst and a digestion phase. The press conference has none of that structure. Liquidity usually stays thinner than normal for its whole duration, the tape speeds up and slows down with each answer, and the footprint shows bursts of initiative volume scattered through the hour. Tape speed and trade counts per bar help identify which answers the market reacted to.

The move during the press conference can extend the statement reaction or reverse it. Cumulative delta across the whole 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. ET window is often more telling than any single bar: a steady build in one direction describes a market repositioning; alternating bursts describe disagreement. On the volume profile, the press conference frequently builds its own area of acceptance, separate from the pre-statement value.

Practical cautions

Market orders during the press conference face thinner books and wider spreads than normal afternoon conditions.
Written headlines summarizing the Chair's words can lag the live broadcast, sometimes by minutes on free news services; the live audio is ahead of any written summary.
The US cash equity close at 4:00 p.m. ET (3:00 p.m. CT) comes about ninety minutes after the press conference starts, and repositioning into the close can add a further move.

In Senzoukria

The press conference may appear as its own row in the News calendar; when a row name matches “press conference”, the calendar describes it as “Policy commentary — forward guidance.” The Speed of Tape indicator measures trades per minute and the Tape speed EMA smooths the trade count per bar; both show which parts of the Q&A drew bursts of activity.

Keyword alerts can ring on headlines naming a word such as powell, but the news wire in Senzoukria is delayed by about 15 minutes and is meant for context, not for trading the live answers. The AI “Brief me” button in the News terminal summarizes the wire and calendar with the AI engine you configured; it describes, it does not predict.

In the same section

Sources

Federal Reserve: FOMC meeting calendars and information (2026-09-25)

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Frequently asked questions

Is there a press conference after every FOMC meeting?: Yes, the Chair holds a press conference after each scheduled meeting, starting at 2:30 p.m. Eastern. Unscheduled meetings do not necessarily include one.
Why do futures move so much during the press conference if the decision is already known?: The decision is only part of the information. The Chair's explanation of risks and future steps changes expectations for the next meetings, which is what rates and index futures price. Thin liquidity during the Q&A amplifies the moves.

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