Panic Driven Liquidity

Mechanism

Panic driven liquidity occurs when participants rapidly exit positions to meet margin requirements or mitigate catastrophic portfolio losses during high-volatility events. This phenomenon triggers automated sell-offs as stop-loss orders and liquidated positions create a cascade of selling pressure that exhausts available buy-side depth. Order book imbalances intensify during these intervals, forcing price discovery into a non-linear downward trajectory as market makers widen spreads to compensate for heightened toxic flow risk.