Goldman Traders Never Had a Down Day

Goldman Sachs just revealed in an SEC filing that its traders made money on every single trading day last quarter, a record for the firm. Net revenue for trading was $25 million or higher in all of the first quarter’s 63 trading days with 35 of those days bringing in more $100 million, according to the filing.

Author:: Zachery Kouwe
Publish date:: May 10, 2010

Being in the business of “facilitating clients,” as Gary Cohn likes to put it, seems like the most profitable game in town these days.

Goldman Sachs just revealed in an SEC filing that its traders made money on every single trading day last quarter, a record for the firm. Net revenue for trading was $25 million or higher in all of the first quarter’s 63 trading days with 35 of those days bringing in more $100 million, according to the filing.

Carl Levin is no doubt already preparing a hearing on whether anyone on the other sides of these trades got a “shitty deal.”

“It will reinforce the heads we win, tails you lose mentality that people think actually exists and promotes the concept of an unfair advantage,” said Douglas Ciocca, a managing director at Renaissance Financial Corp. in Leawood, Kansas, which oversees about $2 billion in assets including Goldman Sachs shares. “It’s too politically charged not to, how is that possible that they only make money?”

Goldman Sachs traders aren’t the only ones on Wall Street to make money on every single trading day last quarter. JPMorgan had average daily trading revenue of $118 million for the quarter and never ended a day with a net loss, according to a filing on Monday.

Now, Goldman Sachs may have to deal with another lawsuit from a bunch of blokes at an Australian hedge fund. Goldman has been tussling behind the scenes with lawyers from the firm, called the Basis Yield Alpha Fund, over a $100 million slice of the Goldman-sponsored Timberwolf CDO that the Aussies bought right before the shit hit the fan.

Before the financial crisis, young Wall Street hot shots used to clamor to get named in Trader Monthly’s "Top Traders Under 30." Trader Monthly has been relegated to the dustbin of failed financial publications, but Wall Street Cheat Sheet decided to spend the last 8 months finding the top 3 traders under 30 and anoint them the new BSDs of finance. Their raw talent is compared to that of pro ball players Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard and LaBron James.

Are you among the people who mistakenly believe working for Goldman Sachs has lost its luster? That the youth of America no longer spend nights dreaming about what it'd be like to bask in the glow of Lloyd Blankfein? That a guy who couldn't tie his shoes 'til he was 22 was able to ruin the picture they had their minds of what it would be like to one day, if they worked really hard, have Gary Cohn hike up one leg, plant his foot on a their desk, his thigh close to their face, and ask how markets were doing? Then you don't have a clue. Goldman’s program has grown so big that the firm has to break their start date into two groups. This week welcomed the lucky few selected for “revenue” businesses, like investment banking and trading. Next week brings “services” workers, COO Gary Cohn said at a conference Thursday. Vampire squids, Greg Smith and Delaware judges can’t keep the applicants away. “Our application pool this year was greater than it ever has been,” Cohn said. Goldman Sachs Still Hot With The Youths [Deal Journal] Related: Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn Likes To Speak To Employees On A Grundle-To-Face Basis