There seems to have been some confusion between various Markit indices

http://www.markit.com/information/products/category/indices.html

with some saying there is no liquidity in the indices

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/af1e1c18-ee04-11dc-a5c1-0000779fd2ac.html

"Liquidating structured credit instruments requires buying large amounts of protection using credit default swaps. This, in turn, drives the cost of protection higher, potentially triggering a chain reaction."

http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/market-movers/2008/03/12/how-the-cds-market-can-support-the-bond-market

"a mark to market problem and, to boot"

I am assuming that they are talking about indices, as structured credit vehicles, such as CDOs tend to hedge against these rather than single name. There are no liquidity problems on the ITRAXX Europe, Xover or HiVol, and I believe the same to be true of the CDX. Furthmore, Markit are still publishing end of day curves, so why is mark to markit a problem?

Perhaps people are getting confused between the credit and the ABX indices?