What are the indicators of liquidity?
Liquid markets tend to exhibit five characteristics: (i) tightness; (ii) immediacy; (iii) depth; (iv) breadth; and (v) resiliency. Tightness refers to low transaction costs, such as the difference between buy and sell prices, like the bid-ask spreads in quote-driven markets, as well as implicit costs.
Key Takeaways
Liquidity refers to the ease with which an asset, or security, can be converted into ready cash without affecting its market price. Cash is the most liquid of assets, while tangible items are less liquid. The two main types of liquidity are market liquidity and accounting liquidity.
Stock Liquidity Indicators
Investors should take into consideration the stock's bid-ask spread, which is the difference between the quoted price and its immediate purchase price.
Three liquidity ratios are commonly used – the current ratio, quick ratio, and cash ratio. In each of the liquidity ratios, the current liabilities amount is placed in the denominator of the equation, and the liquid assets amount is placed in the numerator.
Usually, liquidity is calculated by taking the volume of trades or the volume of pending trades currently on the market. Liquidity is considered “high” when there is a significant level of trading activity and when there is both high supply and demand for an asset, as it is easier to find a buyer or seller.
The two measures of liquidity are: Market Liquidity. Accounting Liquidity.
| Liquidity Ratios | Formula |
|---|---|
| Current Ratio | Current Assets / Current Liabilities |
| Quick Ratio | (Cash + Marketable securities + Accounts receivable) / Current liabilities |
| Cash Ratio | Cash and equivalent / Current liabilities |
| Net Working Capital Ratio | Current Assets – Current Liabilities |
Quick ratio (Acid-test ratio)
You can calculate it by subtracting inventory from current assets and then dividing the result by current liabilities. The quick ratio provides a more stringent indicator of a company's immediate liquidity position than the broader current ratio.
Funding or cash flow liquidity risk is the chief concern of a corporate treasurer who asks whether the firm can fund its liabilities. A classic indicator of funding liquidity risk is the current ratio (current assets/current liabilities) or, for that matter, the quick ratio.
The bid-ask spread, or the difference between what a seller is willing to take and what a buyer wants to pay, is a good measure of liquidity. Market trading volume is also key. If the bid-ask spread is too large on a consistent basis, then the trading volume is probably low, and so is the liquidity.
Which ratios measure liquidity?
Common liquidity ratios include the quick ratio, current ratio, and days sales outstanding. Liquidity ratios determine a company's ability to cover short-term obligations and cash flows, while solvency ratios are concerned with a longer-term ability to pay ongoing debts.
The Current Ratio is one of the most commonly used Liquidity Ratios and measures the company's ability to meet its short-term debt obligations. It is calculated by dividing total current assets by total current liabilities. A higher ratio indicates the company has enough liquid assets to cover its short-term debts.
For most financial firms, demand for liquidity come from a few primary sources: Customers withdrawing money from their accounts. Credit requests from customers the financial firm wishes to keep, either in the form of new loan requests or drawings upon existing credit lines.
The Liquidity Sweeps indicator detects the presence of liquidity sweeps on the user's chart, while also providing potential areas of support/resistance or entry when Liquidity levels are taken. In the event of a Liquidity Sweep a Sweep Area is created which may provide further areas of interest.
Traditional measures of market liquidity include trade volume (or the number of trades), market turnover, bid-ask spreads and trading velocity. Additionally, liquidity also depends on many macroeconomic and market fundamentals.
The information you'll need to examine liquidity is found on your company's balance sheet. Assets are listed in order of how quickly they can be turned into cash. So, at the top of the balance sheet is cash, the most liquid asset. Also listed on the balance sheet are your liabilities, or what your company owes.
Liquidity means the conversion of investment into a cash form. The least liquid current asset is inventory. This is because sales of finished goods depend highly on customer demands. If the need for the good is low, then the inventory stock will increase and not be quickly converted into cash.
Liquidity is a company's ability to convert assets to cash or acquire cash—through a loan or money in the bank—to pay its short-term obligations or liabilities. How much cash could your business access if you had to pay off what you owe today —and how fast could you get it? Liquidity answers that question.
Liquidity ratios measure businesses' ability to cover short-term debt timely and without losses. In other words, it reveals how often a firm's current assets—easily converted into cash—can cover its current liabilities, i.e., financial obligations due within a year.
It is calculated by dividing current assets less inventory by current liabilities. The optimum ratio is 1, above this figure there is good capacity to meet payments, below 1 there are weaknesses.
What is liquidity ratio in simple words?
What is liquidity ratio and how does it work? A liquidity ratio is a measurement which is used to indicate whether a debtor will be able to pay their short-term debt off with the cash they have readily available, or whether they'll need to raise additional capital to cover the amount.
The operating cash flow ratio is a measure of short-term liquidity by calculating the number of times a company can pay down its current debts with cash generated in the same period. The ratio is calculated by dividing the operating cash flow by the current liabilities.
The three main liquidity ratios are the current, quick, and cash ratios. The current ratio is current assets divided by current liabilities. The quick ratio is current assets minus inventory divided by current liabilities. The cash ratio is cash plus marketable securities divided by current liabilities.
The current ratio is a simple but effective measure of your liquidity. It is calculated by dividing your current assets by your current liabilities. It shows how many times you can cover your short-term debts with your available resources.
In monitoring liquidity, it is essential to understand the identification and taxonomy of cash flows that occur during the business activities of a financial institution and, importantly, the deterministic and stochastic cash flows. These cash flows help in building practical tools to monitor and manage liquidity risk.
