What good is a projection of the Fed funds rate? The dot plot was invented in late 2011, at a time when Fed officials were considering how to prepare markets for the shift they hoped to make away ...

The dot plot, decoded When the central bank releases its Summary of Economic Projections each quarter, Fed watchers focus obsessively on one part in particular: the so-called dot plot.

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 ...