Cited Charts
What the Federal Reserve Actually Owns
Episode 06 · 10:32 · watch
The portfolio, not the balance sheet. SOMA is the securities portfolio the New York Fed runs for open market operations. It is by far the largest item on the asset side, but gold certificates, loans to banks and premises are not in it — which is why articles about “the Fed's balance sheet” quote a larger number.
The figures used
| SOMA holdings, 4 November 2026 unless stated | Value |
|---|---|
| Portfolio total, 4 November 2026 | $6,357.6 bn |
| Peak | $8,423.3 bn on 13 April 2022 |
| Start of the series | $651.0 bn on 9 July 2003 |
| Growth factor | 12.9× |
| Fall since the peak | $2,065.7 bn · 24.5 % |
| Treasury notes and bonds | $3,597.9 bn · 56.6 % |
| Mortgage-backed securities | $1,876.2 bn · 29.5 % |
| Treasury bills | $573.4 bn · 9.0 % |
| Inflation-protected Treasuries | $277.7 bn · 4.4 % |
| Floating rate notes | $22.9 bn · 0.4 % |
| Commercial mortgage-backed securities | $7.3 bn · 0.1 % |
| Agency debt | $2.3 bn · 0.0 % |
| Mortgage securities incl. CMBS | $1,885.9 bn · 29.7 % |
| …peak | $2,740.2 bn on 13 April 2022 |
| Government paper in the portfolio | $4,471.7 bn |
| Total federal debt outstanding | $40,559.8 bn |
| Debt held outside government trust funds | $32,763.8 bn |
| Fed share of all federal debt | 11.0 % |
| Fed share of the publicly held part | 13.6 % |
| Weekly observations | 1,218 |
The arithmetic that catches a common error. The reported total equals bills + notes and bonds + TIPS + floating rate notes + MBS + CMBS + agency debt, exactly, in all 1,218 weeks. The TIPS inflation compensation line sits beside that total, not inside it — adding it overstates the portfolio by about $107 billion. The build script checks the sum and stops if it does not match.
Sources
- Federal Reserve Bank of New York — SOMA holdings Weekly summary, 9 July 2003 to 4 November 2026, 1,218 observations. markets.newyorkfed.org/api/soma/summary.json. Retrieved 11 November 2026.
- U.S. Department of the Treasury — Debt to the Penny Total public debt outstanding and debt held by the public, 9 November 2026. fiscaldata.treasury.gov.
- A note on the arithmetic The reported total equals bills + notes and bonds + TIPS + floating rate notes + MBS + CMBS + agency debt, exactly, in all 1,218 weeks. The 'TIPS inflation compensation' line sits beside that total, not inside it — adding it overstates the portfolio by about $107 billion. The build script checks this and stops if the parts do not sum.
Data files
As used in the episode — the charts are generated from exactly this.
soma-weekly-2003-2026.json 1,218 weekly observationsWhat these numbers do not say
- This is the securities portfolio (SOMA), not the whole Federal Reserve balance sheet — articles about the balance sheet quote a larger number because it contains other things.
- These are face values as reported, not market prices.
- Nothing here says whether any of it was a good idea. The file shows what was bought and when; whether it worked is an argument it cannot settle.
- And owning a mortgage security is not owning a house. The Fed holds claims on payment streams, not property.
Corrections
None yet. Errors reported in the comments are corrected here and noted with the date.
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