The dot plot is best explained with an example, so to illustrate how it works, here's a real-world example of a Federal Reserve dot plot and how to interpret it.

The Fed’s dot plot is a chart that records each Fed official’s projection for the central bank’s key short-term interest rate. The dot plot is updated every three months and is meant to ...

The Fed dot plot is a quarterly chart with FOMC participants’ predictions about what the federal funds rate will be over the next two to three years and in the longer term. The dot plot provides ...

Yahoo Finance Live's Julie Hyman breaks down how to make sense of the Federal Reserve's 'Dot Plot' or Summary of Economic Projections.

For example, this week’s dot plot showed that 9 of the 17 thought the appropriate Fed funds range by the end of 2016 would be the range between 0.75% and 1.0%. They called that the median.

Markets Brief: Why You Should Watch the Dot Plots at the Fed’s March Meeting Will the Fed signal an interest-rate cut in June, but with fewer to follow?

The Fed’s dot plot is a chart updated quarterly that records each Fed official’s projection for the central bank’s key short-term interest rate, the federal funds rate.

For example, each dot in the "2020" column on the dot plot (see below) indicates one official's prediction for where the benchmark federal funds rate will be at the end of that year.

The dot plot is best explained with an example, so to illustrate how it works, here's a real-world example of a Federal Reserve dot plot and how to interpret it.