Importantly, FOMC members do not have to guess about the effects of their words and actions on the public's expectations of future policy actions. Information about those expectations is revealed in a number of ways in financial markets.
For example, market prices on actively-traded futures contracts on the funds rate or on the Eurodollar rate tell us a great deal about the funds rate that market participants expect to prevail at various dates in the future.14 Options on fed funds and Eurodollar futures are also actively traded; the prices of these options provide useful information about the degree of uncertainty that market participants have about future monetary policy.