UPDATE
EQUITIES
Goldman Sachs to trade
equities for Bloomberg
Tradebook
G
oldman Sachs is to offer its equities execution
services to Bloomberg Tradebook’s clients under
a recently established broker agreement.
The exclusive partnership means Bloomberg Trade-
book’s users will gain access to Goldman Sachs’ equi-
ties execution platform, liquidity and global services.
The investment bank explained that continued
investment in technology and data science alongside
the global and multi-asset nature of the business, posi-
tions the firm as a leader in best execution.
Tom Kingsley, CEO and President of Bloomberg
Tradebook said: “Goldman Sachs is known as a world-
class broker. The benefits to our clients are clear:
we continue to innovate in technology, analytics and
distribution, and maintain excellent customer service
with an alliance that complements the strengths of
both firms.”
Similarly Raj Mahajan, global co-head of securities
systematic solutions at Goldman Sachs, explained both
firms share a common principle that execution quality
is increasingly driven by investment in technology.
He added: “We are pleased to build upon our rela-
tionship with Bloomberg to now offer our service to
Tradebook clients.
“We are confident that Bloomberg’s expertise in
technology, and analytics, combined with Goldman
Sachs’ vast execution capabilities, liquidity offerings
and ability to respond to the changing global execu-
tion landscape will result in a superior user experi-
ence.”
Customers will retain the ability to enter orders
directly from the Bloomberg Terminal and access to
Bloomberg’s data, analytics and technology under the
agreement.
The agreement could help boost Goldman Sachs’
equities business, which has seen consecutive quarters
of lower revenues following a loss in market share.
The institutional client services business at Goldman
6
TheTrade
Winter 2017
Sachs saw revenues decrease 17% compared to the
third quarter last year, with fixed income trading down
a significant 26% to $1.45 billion.
Net revenues from its equities business dropped 7%
to $1.67 billion, “primarily due to lower net revenues
in equities client execution,” it said.
In the first half of 2017, Coalition ranked Goldman
Sachs third in its league table for equities trading,
behind Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan which were
ranked joint top.
Speaking on the investment bank’s third quarter
earnings call, chief financial officer Marty Chavez, also
explained the impact of MiFID II means differentiat-
ed content, scale and global reach are now critically
important.
“On the execution side and staying close to our cli-
ents, understanding the liquidity provision, execution
capabilities that they need and designing them. We
have the software, we have the people, and so we are
working on all of that and that is progressing,” he said.
“On the research side, again, it’s important to have
that differentiated content and the breadth of re-
search, and the conversations about the price discov-
ery for the research product are progressing.”