I just noticed that people have been asking about the FOMC quite often—especially as the meeting date gets closer, causing the market to nearly shake nonstop—so I thought I should explain what the FOMC actually is and why it’s so important.

Simply put, the FOMC is the monetary policy committee of the U.S. central bank. It consists of 12 senior officials who are responsible for deciding on monetary policy, similar to how Thailand has the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), which meets to set the direction of monetary policy.

Then what the FOMC focuses on mainly has two goals: maintaining price stability (looking at the inflation rate) and supporting an improvement in employment levels. They use various tools to achieve these goals, such as adjusting interest rates or buying/selling government bonds.

What investors need to keep an eye on is that the FOMC’s decisions affect the money market, the stock market, gold prices, and even foreign currencies. Just the U.S. government bond market alone is over 51 trillion dollars, so changes in policy create a domino effect across the world.

FOMC meetings are held 8 times a year, lasting 2 days each. The results are usually announced with signals that cause volatility in the market—stocks, gold, and bonds may move sharply, depending on what the FOMC chooses to do.

For those who want to understand more deeply, you need to watch the Dot Plot released along with the meeting minutes. It’s a chart showing each member’s view on what interest rates should be in the future, allowing us to see the direction of their decisions in advance.

In short, the FOMC is an important part of the global financial system. No matter what market you invest in, you need to closely follow their moves, because a single meeting can change our investment strategies significantly.