As it is, some of the world's deepest and most important markets have, on a few occasions over the past year, seen very large price movements – thankfully for only fairly short periods. More generally, the search for yield has seen investors, including sovereign funds, insurers, and mutual funds held by retail investors, move into assets that are inherently less liquid.
This leaves us, unavoidably, with a degree of uncertainty about how markets might cope with larger shocks, and how larger price changes for assets priced in those markets may feed back to the economy. Not surprisingly, liquidity management for asset managers and the question of liquidity conditions in markets in general are key themes for the Financial Stability Board at present.