The ETF liquidity mirage

ETFs are supposed to provide investors with deep pools of liquidity, but Europe’s fragmented market structure makes it all but impossible to gauge what the true picture is. Regulators are concerned about the lack of transparency and some warn that ETFs could be conduits for the transmission of liquidity shocks to other markets. By Andrew Capon

When Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798 with his 45,000-strong Armée d’Orient, he took with him more than 150 scientists and scholars. They included Gaspard Monge, the founder of the renowned École Polytechnique. As the army marched across the desert from Alexandria to Cairo, Monge observed a strange phenomenon. On the horizon, there would often appear to be a large body of water. But as the thirst-wracked soldiers approached, their vision retreated and then disappeared. In Mémoires sur l’Égypte