Liquidity

By:

James Knight

James is a lead editor for Invezz, where he covers topics from across the financial world, from the stock… read more.

Updated: Aug 20, 2021

Ad disclosure

Invezz is an independent platform with the goal of helping users achieve financial freedom. In order to fund our work, we partner with advertisers who compensate us for users that Invezz refers to their services. While our reviews and assessments of each product on the site are independent and unbiased, brands may pay to appear higher up our table rankings or place ads in specific areas of the site. The order in which products and services appear on Invezz does not represent an endorsement from us, and please be aware that there may be other platforms available to you than the products and services that appear on our website. Read more about how we make money >

The ease with wich an asset can be exchanged for money. The liquidity of an asset is determined by the nature of the market on which it is traded. For example, shares in a company are liquid because there is a well-organized market on which they can be bought and sold, and so within a quite short time exchanged for cash. A house, on the other hand, tends to be illiquid, since it can take some time and effort to sell, even when demand for houses may be fairly strong. The term may also be applied to an institution or individual; a firm is said to be liquid if a high proportion of its assets are held in the form of money or very liquid assets. The extent of the firm’s liquidity in this sense then gives an indication of its ability to meet its expenditures quicly enough to satisfy creditors and avoid bankruptcy.

Reference: The Penguin Dictionary of Economics, 3rd edt.