Don't be fooled on bond prices, rate moves have been factored in CONSCIOUSLY or unconsciously, investors make decisions about the direction of interest rates when they invest. For example, if you have $100,000 to invest for a year in a term deposit, do you take the best rate for the coming year, which might be for 90 days, and hope that interest rates rise in the meantime, so that when you come to reinvest you will earn more income, or do you invest for the whole year at a lower rate? The way in which institutional investors assess likely changes in interest rates is by analysing the bank bill swap rate (BBSW) yield curve. This constantly changes. Every business day, a panel of banks project their forward interest rate expectations for periods from one day to 30 years and by joining these expectations over time the market builds the yield curve. This yield curve, therefore, represents the banks' forward expectations of interest rates.