Liquidity
A liquid market has many buyers and sellers close to the current price, so orders fill near where you expect. In thin markets, even modest orders move the price, spreads widen, and slippage grows.
Liquidity follows the clock: it concentrates in the London and New York sessions and evaporates around rollover, holidays, and major news. Strategies that trade session transitions are trading liquidity structure as much as price.
Covered in depth in Lesson 09: Sessions: the rhythm of the forex day.
Related terms
- Spread — The difference between the buy (ask) and sell (bid) price — the built-in cost of every round-trip trade.
- Slippage — The difference between the price an order requested and the price it actually filled at.
- Trading session — The hours when a major financial center is active — Asian, London, and New York sessions shape the day's liquidity rhythm.
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