Finance, at its heart, is the movement of capital. It is the art of channeling idle assets to where they can generate the most value. From this perspective, the history of financial markets is, in essence, a history of improving liquidity. From ancient money changers in bustling marketplaces to modern high-frequency algorithms executing millions of trades in microseconds, liquidity has always been the lifeblood of finance, the invisible force that keeps economies flowing and markets aliveYet this seemingly simple concept, namely, the ability to buy or sell assets quickly and fairly, has profoundly shaped the global economy, influencing everyone from individual investors to multinational banks. The 2008 global financial crisis revealed…
