Professor Vassilis Polimenis,
Department of Finance, A. Gary Anderson Graduate School of Mangement,
University of California Riverside
Abstract:
A simple model that formally defines market liquidity and depth is
introduced. Liquidity is the expected rate of order execution in shares per
minute. Depth is the density of the limit order book in shares per dollar.
Even though the trading and price processes are diffusions the large trader
faces a normal inverse Gaussian risk. Illiquid markets tend to exhibit
longer execution delays and indirectly higher risk related to price impact.
Markets with low depth are characterized by high price sensitivity and
larger risks. Deviations from fundamental value exist because arbitraging
them away generates risk and negatively skewed profits. I provide analytical
computations for liquidity and breadth premia. It is well known that block
traders break their orders in an effort to avoid exposing their entire block
to the market and thus incurring large price impacts from front-running and
liquidity withholding behavior around their block trade. I analytically
calculate the benefit of breaking a large block to a series of small orders
submitted back-to-back.