Exiting a Burning Building: Structural Drivers
of Liquidity Shocks in Stock and Bond Markets

Abstract

Leading investment professionals from BNY Mellon Asset Management discuss structural differences in equity and fixed income markets that affected the ability to transact during the 2008 crisis. They focus on the key role that transparency, information credibility, counterparty knowledge, and trade size can play in preventing a temporary liquidity squeeze from freezing up entire markets. Understanding the structural drivers of liquidity shocks in different markets and the self-reinforcing process that escalates those shocks may help managers develop better safeguards for managing liquidity.