Tight Market

A market with narrow bid-ask spreads. A tight market for a security or commodity is characterized by abundant liquidity and frenetic trading activity. Intense price competition on both the buyers' and sellers' sides leads to tight spreads, the hallmark of a tight market.

The term "tight market" may also refer to a physical market wherein supply is constrained in the face of high demand, resulting in higher prices for the product or service.

Most blue-chip stocks have tight markets, since there is plenty of interest from buyers and sellers at any point in time. Occasionally, however, tight market conditions may be disrupted by a sudden change in the market environment (due to a geopolitical development, for example) or the occurrence of a stock-specific event (such as an earnings warning). When this occurs, bid-ask spreads may widen as liquidity dries up, until there is more clarity to the situation. Tight market conditions will generally return once the situation has been resolved and normalcy has been restored.

During a tight market, the high levels of liquidity make it possible for large trades to be made with little noticeable impact on the market. When liquidity is lower, trades tend to be broken up in more digestible segments. Liquidity can be influenced by such factors as downgrades on credit ratings, changes to the capital requirements for banks, and restrictions on short-selling and proprietary trading.

There is some debate about whether a tight market and the characteristic narrow margins mean for actual liquidity. Some experts say that narrow margins are actually indicative of phantom liquidity with high-frequency trades where orders are placed in large batches and then quickly canceled if the price of a security changes unfavorably. By their reckoning, this creates a false impression of high supply and high demand, which can influence prices. The overall effects of such a phenomenon has been refuted by some who say that the data do not support the hypothesis that pricing in tight markets are influenced by such behavior.

Tight markets can see spreads as narrow as a few cents or less, compared with spreads that might be measured in tens of cents or greater.

A physical tight market may occur due to a temporary imbalance of supply and demand, or a more lasting change in fundamentals. An example of the former would be the market for a hot technology product in the first few days after its launch. An example of a longer-lasting tight market would be the downtown office rental market in a major city during a prolonged economic boom.