In addition to the relentless growth in the Fed's balance sheet, elsewhere also known as the S&P 500, one of the persistent trends over the past five years has been the exponential surge in Fed "messaging complexity" shown most clearly by the rising (and currently record) number of words in each and every FOMC statement.
This trend, which curiously mirrors the rise in Fed assets is shown most clearly on the chart below courtesy of @Not_Jim_Cramer [5].
[6]
Zooming in on just the the last two years, one can see how much more convoluted the Fed's message has become, as its statement has more than doubled in size from 420 words to the current record of 877 words.
[7]
So for today's Pop QEez: will today's Fed statement, due out in less than two hours, become a new record of over 877 words, or will the Fed finally begin tapering, not only of its bond purchases, but of the confused message it is trying to send to HFT algos and whatever carbon-based traders are left?
Bonus question: how many milliseconds after the Fed statement is released will Jon Hilsenrath's 1000+ word "Hilsencliff Notes" analysis, based on the embarged FOMC statement, hit the tape: an analysis which absolutely, certainly, never in a million years would be leaked to friends, family, and HFT algos?