Liquidating Market

Liquidating market is a type of securities market in which there is broad-based selling of most securities at the same time, giving the effect of low and decreasing prices on most securities while selling volumes remain high. This mass liquidation of securities often occurs when the contracts have reached or are nearing the point of delivery.

A liquidating market is one in which the majority of investors are leaving or selling off the securities they own which are traded in that market, so that overall there is a general liquidation of securities in one market.

A market experiencing this type of mass liquidation will hit bottom eventually, but this often does not happen immediately. Instead, the market first will go through a series of cycles, with a succession of up and down movements to varying degrees. Once the first wave of liquidation begins to subside, a new group of bargain-seeking buyers may swoop in, trying to take advantage of the opportunity to buy low. This initial round of activity may give the false impression that the trend has stopped and is reversing. In actuality, this initial period of buying may quickly give way to another round of liquidating, and this repeated cycle of buying and selling may continue for a while, giving a number of false impressions that things have settled down, before the market finally reaches its true bottom.

A liquidating market can occur for virtually any type of security if the right conditions develop. Investors often make the decision to liquidate when a financial bubble of some type bursts.

A housing bubble might be a good example. This involves an environment in which real estate prices are continually bid up as a general trend across the board. Rising prices, especially those that rise suddenly and rapidly escalate, will likely eventually reach a point where they max out. Once the bubble bursts, investors stop buying into real estate and begin selling their holdings. 

This creates the aggregate effect of a sell-off in the real estate market as a whole, which would display relatively low prices on houses and strong selling pressure. In this case, observers could call the real estate market a liquidating market, as most of the market's participants are chiefly interested in liquidating their assets into cash at that time. This leads to a saturation of the market, as eager sellers flood the market with properties they want to unload quickly.