when the federal reserve starts scaling back its massive bondbuying spree mortgage traders are betting their market will be at the forefront that would be a break from the fed’s balanced approach during its last pullback in 2014 when it slowed purchases of treasuries and mortgagebacked securities at the same pace but with housing prices now surging and lending rates not far from record lows some see a diminishing case for the central bank to keep adding 40 billion of mortgage bonds to its balance sheet each month