Hedge Fund Risk Fundamentals: Solving the Risk Management and Transparency Challenge

CHAPTER 4

Illiquidity

The Titanic was built to navigate the world's waters. When a relatively small fraction of these waters became illiquid (froze), this illiquid instrument (the iceberg) became the cause of one of the world's greatest catastrophes. The designers of the world's grandest ship had so arrogantly ignored the possibility of such an event that they had never developed an appropriate escape plan. Tragically, there were only enough lifeboats for fewer than half of the passengers on the ship. The key lesson learned is: Develop an escape plan before the alarms sound.

Although icebergs are extremely treacherous, vigilant observation can ...