Liquidity generally refers to how easily or quickly a security can be bought or sold in a secondary market. Liquid investments can be sold readily and without paying a hefty fee to get money when it is needed.
A stock’s liquidity generally refers to how rapidly shares of a stock can be bought or sold without substantially impacting the stock price. Stocks with low liquidity may be difficult to sell and may cause you to take a bigger loss if you cannot sell the shares when you want to.
Liquidity risk is the risk that investors won’t find a market for their securities, which may prevent them from buying or selling when they want. This is sometimes the case with complicated investment products and products that charge a penalty for early withdrawal or liquidation such as a certificate of deposit (CD).