Fed minutes of October 7, 2026: what they said, and how I trade around them

The “minutes” are the detailed record of a meeting of the Fed’s monetary policy committee (the FOMC), released about three weeks later. The ones from October 7 cover the meeting of September 15 and 16, 2026: the committee raised its policy rate by a quarter point, to a range of 3.75% to 4%, unanimously among its twelve voters.

The passage markets read first is about what comes next: most participants judged that another increase would likely be appropriate by year-end. No date is given, and the text repeats that each decision will depend on the data. The minutes are therefore not a decision: they shed light on how the committee is thinking.

The Nasdaq Composite closed down about 0.2%, the day after a record, according to the session recaps from Investopedia and The Motley Fool. Both put less weight on the minutes than on long-term yields: the US 10-year yield neared its highest level since 2002 in the morning, and the 30-year hit a 24-year high.

What I mainly take from it: a Fed release does not land on a neutral market. That day, the pressure was already coming from yields, and the minutes confirmed a tone the market had known since the September hike. I draw no rule about the Nasdaq’s direction after minutes from it: a single day proves nothing.

That Wednesday was the last session of my public Apex challenge. On MNQ in 5 minutes, FTS Liquidity Sweep Pro shows four buy signals during the New York morning, at 06:50, 07:10, 07:40 and around 08:20. The morning’s first trade leaves without me. After the last one, I enter at 08:40 on the CISD and the 5-minute FVG, and the trade reaches its target before 9 a.m.

Before 9 a.m. I was flat, and I took nothing else that day. The minutes came out at 2 p.m. New York time, five hours later. I did not do it to avoid the release: my session plays out in the morning, and that is when it played out. The indicator spots liquidity sweeps; I decide when I stop.

When a Fed release hits, the order book thins out for a few seconds, then price often runs one way, comes back, and runs the other way. The stops placed above and below the previous range are taken one after the other. A stop order can be filled much further away than planned: that is slippage, and it shows up in no backtest.

The diagram below is not a capture: it shows the typical shape of those minutes. A sweep of both sides, in one or two candles, can make a signal appear on the indicator, since liquidity really was taken. I read it as a marker, not an invitation. Without a clean displacement or a CISD after the volatility, I take nothing.

Two events follow, according to the official BLS and Fed calendars: US inflation (CPI) on Wednesday, October 14, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. New York time, right at the open, then the Fed’s next decision on Wednesday, October 28, 2026 at 2 p.m., followed by the press conference. I make no forecast about what they will say or how the market will react.

What I do, though, is look at them before the session. On CPI days, my morning window starts with a release: I cut size or wait for the first candle to pass. On Fed days, I stick to my morning session. My two time tools show these releases in your time zone, and the size calculator helps cut risk when the stop has to be wider. A release is neither good nor bad news for an intraday trader: it is a time when the usual markers are worth less.