Liquidity: the water level

Liquidity pools are what let you actually trade a token — a pot of paired assets that swaps happen against. Pre-graduation, that pot is the bonding curve itself; post-graduation, it's a normal PumpSwap pool. Either way, think of it as the water level in a pool: plenty of water, you dive in and out smoothly. Barely any, and every move splashes everyone, including you.

Thin liquidity means wild price swings on tiny orders, and you might not exit a real-size position without crashing the price on your own way out. A token flashing a huge market cap on paper can still sit on a pool worth a few thousand dollars — the number is theater if nobody can trade near it.

Before you enter anything, check the pool against the size you'd want to exit with. If your own exit would move the chart, you're not looking at a trade, you're looking at a trap with good marketing.