System Open Market Account - SOMA

The Federal Reserve is in charge of keeping the economy humming. The Fed sets interest rates. It oversees the currency. It makes sure that enough money flows through the economy to maintain growth, without sparking inflation.

One of the Fed's main avenues of intervention is called "open market operations." The U.S. central bank buys and sells assets on the open market, as needed, to achieve its monetary policy goals.

The System Open Market Account is like the storage shed for all the assets the Fed uses for these open market operations. All the rakes, snowblowers, garden hoses, and weed-wackers the Fed needs to keep the economy blooming go into the SOMA shed.

The SOMA contains things like Treasury bonds, which it buys or sells as needed to influence the money supply. The Fed also has foreign currencies in the SOMA, needed to balance payments of foreign trade.