The Goldman 10-Q is out, providing numerous interesting datapoints for those willing to scour through them. The key one: Goldman lost money on just one trading day in Q3, making money on all the other 64. As a reminder, even in Q2 Goldman lost money on two trading days. The statistical probability distribution of 1 out of 65 is something that not the SEC, but Richard Feynman should be looking into, as Goldman Sachs, after rewriting the lass of risk/return, is now set to redefine normal distributions and other Statistics 101 concepts.
Looking at Goldman's risk profile, total VaR presumably declined from $221 to $189: this was due to declines in Interest Rates and Equity Prices VaRs, coupled with an increase in Currency Rates and, more importantly, Commodity Prices. Notably, the "diversification effect" of numbing VaR provided about a ($93) benefit to reducing overall risk. One wonders what will happen to Goldman's VaR when the dollar carry trade bandwagon hits a wall and death and destruction become pervasive.
And an indication of just how much of a hedge fund Goldman has become instead of a client servicer, the firm's Equities Commissions revenue for the quarter dropped to $930 million from $1.2 billion YoY, while prop Equities Trading skyrocketed from $354 million to $1.8 billion YoY! And just in case you were wondering someone, somewhere was motivated to destroy Fixed Income powerhouse Lehman and Bear, look no further than Goldman's Fixed Income, Currency and Commodities which did a gentle jump from $1.6 billion in Q3 2008 to $6 billion last quarter. And that explains all you need to know about motivations and backstops.
More to come.
How is this possible?
It wouldn't be possible in a functioning market.
It's a clear indication of a manipulated market.
You hit the nail on the head.
Of course, GS will trot out any number of officers and "experts" to explain how all this is completely normal and expected blah blah blah. In fact, the first volley of that explanation is this quarterly filing.
The arrogance is breath taking.
It's because they cheat.
They bet on sure things i.e. KNOWN outcomes.
They are just smarter than the rest of us.
Source: dogma
Don't question it, just assimilate and be ready to hand over your tax dollars if anything goes wrong. Goldman will take care of the rest and heck might throw a few sheckels at charity to take care of public relations.
"...might throw a few sheckels at charity to take care of public relations."
Uh, doubtful. From that Bloomberg article of earlier today:
“The injunction of Jesus to love others as ourselves is an endorsement of self-interest,” Goldman’s Griffiths said Oct. 20, his voice echoing around the gold-mosaic walls of St. Paul’s Cathedral, whose 365-feet-high dome towers over the City, London’s financial district. “We have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieving greater prosperity and opportunity for all.”
You need to translate from Goldmanese...
“We" (YOU) have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieving greater prosperity and opportunity for "all" (US).
Now it's correct...
I thought the translation was "let them eat cake"
it's a portfolio affect
When you win you keep the profits. When you lose, the government picks up the tab. You have a problem with that?
Seems to me Goldman has monopoly powers. How about we treat them as such.
They can become a public utility or be broken up. Either way beats the heck out of the current robber baron situation.
The money they made was basically a transfer of money from our accounts to theirs...this is a travesty.
Nice advertisement.
lol. how about telling how many days were $200M+ and $500M+
What most people do not get here is that Goldman Sachs is group of powerful individuals and families at the core, they CASH OUT and hide behind the Goldman Name all the time and there is no way to know who they are and how much they made.
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