Goldman Sachs Embraces Automation, Leaving Many Behind

At its height back in 2000, the US cash equities trading desk at Goldman Sachs' New York headquarters employed 600 traders, buying and selling stock on the orders of the investment bank's large clients. Today there are just two equity traders left. Automated trading programs have taken over the rest of the work, supported by 200 computer engineers. Marty Chavez, the company's chief financial officer, explained all this to attendees at a symposium on computing's impact on economic activity held by Harvard's Institute for Applied Computational Science in January. Chavez, who was formerly the chief information officer at Goldman, says areas of trading like currencies and even parts of business lines like investment banking are moving in the same automated direction that equities have already traveled. Average compensation for staff in equities sales, trading, and research at the 12 largest global investment banks, of which Goldman is one, is $500,000 in salary and bonus, according to Coalition.