[ E L E C T R O N I C T R A D I N G | G O L D M A N S A C H S ]
“ We found that whenever we wanted to use the ELP SIs , we could get more liquidity .”
ALEX HARMAN , MD , CO-HEAD OF EMEA ELECTRONIC TRADING , GOLDMAN SACHS
and say the other 20 % will be back when things are easier for us . Everything remained available .”
Resource and investment Over the past three years , Goldman Sachs has doubled its market share in European execution . It now trades one of every seven dollars in the marketplace .
Without a doubt , the scale of the Goldman Sachs franchise will have lent itself to the challenging period the industry has just been through , and proved to be a significant advantage during the crisis .
The other advantage is resource and investment .
Since 2015 , GSET has been completely overhauled . Harman , who has been with Goldman Sachs for the past seven years , says the plan was to revamp the entire platform and front-to-back infrastructure , including exchange gateways and operations , not just the smart order router ( SOR ) and algorithm suite .
Although it began with the SOR , which has evolved into a low-latent , technology-led routing system that was pivotal to GSET after the European liquidity landscape was transformed by MiFID II . Upon its introduction in 2018 , MiFID II saw the number of venues shift from around 15 to now more than 50 in operation across the region .
“ It wasn ’ t just the number of venues increasing , it ’ s the increased complexity of the venue types we now have in Europe ,” Harman explains . “ For example , periodic auctions , electronic liquidity provider ( ELP ) systematic internalisers ( SIs ). All of these mechanisms are reliant on data , speed , smart technology , and the ability to connect quickly .
36 // TheTRADE // Fall 2020