2011/12/28 by Gabrielsen, Alexandros, Marzo, Massimiliano, Zagaglia, Paolo
#FOS: Economics and business #General Finance (q-fin.GN) #Portfolio Management (q-fin.PM) #Trading and Market Microstructure (q-fin.TR)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1112.6169
Asset liquidity in modern financial markets is a key but elusive concept. A market is often said to be liquid when the prevailing structure of transactions provides a prompt and secure link between the demand and supply of assets, thus delivering low costs of transaction. Providing a rigorous and empirically relevant definition of market liquidity has, however, provided to be a difficult task. This paper provides a critical review of the frameworks currently available for modelling and estimating the market liquidity of assets. We consider definitions that stress the role of the bid-ask spread and the estimation of its components that arise from alternative sources of market friction. In this case, intra-daily measures of liquidity appear relevant for capturing the core features of a market, and for their ability to describe the arrival of new information to market participants.