The US Federal Reserve building in Washington DC. The next Fed meeting will take place on April 28-29.

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The Federal Reserve is the central bank of the United States, meaning that it is a government entity in charge of monetary policy that affects the entire economy. To effect its policies, the Fed, as it’s commonly known, has a number of tools. The best known and most obviously relevant to investors is the ability to set the target federal funds rate to help stimulate or slow the economy. The federal funds rate is a range of interest rates at which banks provide unsecured overnight loans to one another.

That may sound odd because banks are where the cash is supposed to be. But regulations require institutions to keep a certain…