Goldman Gets Serious About High-Speed Trading

by Sam Mamudi and Michael J Moore - June 12, 2015 — 5:00 AM EDT

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which called for reform of high-speed stock trading before Michael Lewis’s “Flash Boys” spurred an outcry last year, is diving back in.

The bank’s electronic equity-execution unit is hiring executives including Keith Casuccio from Morgan Stanley and investing in software, trading infrastructure and its dark pool, according to people with knowledge of the plan.

Goldman Sachs emerged last year as an early supporter of the U.S. stock platform created by IEX Group Inc., portrayed in Lewis’s book as an antidote to the perceived ills of the super-fast, multi-venue electronic trading in today’s market. Now, after few major changes in the way stocks are traded, the investment bank is seeking to execute faster, catching up with competitors and leveling the playing field for its clients.

Goldman Sachs is one of the world’s top equity-trading banks, climbing to No. 1 by revenue in the first quarter after ranking second in 2014, when it produced $6.74 billion. The latest push, which included hiring Raj Mahajan as head of equity electronic-execution services this year, shows it’s focused on establishing itself as one of the top players in automated trading in particular.

In March 2014, Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal calling for the industry and regulators to improve the market’s structure as risks were “amplified by the dramatic increase in the speed of execution and trading communications.”...

Full article and video:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-12/goldman-sachs-revs-up-in-high-speed-market-it-sought-to-reform