The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that funds run by firms including Blackstone, BlackRock, Blue Owl, Carlyle, Apollo and Ares faced heavy redemption requests; Blue Owl alone saw $5.4-billion in requests in the first quarter of the year. Guest columnist Sam Sivarajan writes that these funds are described as "semi-liquid," meaning the capital invested cannot be withdrawn for a period of time and may require a notice period of up to several months. One lesson to be learned from this experience is that "semi-liquid" can be a misleading label; when market conditions deteriorate, access to cash can tighten just when investors expect it to be there. The appeal of such investments is understandable. A fund advertising annual returns of 8 per cent to 10 per cent with seemingly low volatility looked attractive after years of near-zero interest rates. Many private investments are not priced daily, so investors rarely see price swings. It is a pattern that has repeated from the dot-com era to the subprime mortgage crisis and now to private credit. Retail investors should heed the lesson and learn to read "semi-liquid" as what it often is: marketing language that makes illiquid assets sound more attractive.