Goldman Sachs is firing about 30 traders in response to declining margins and increased electronic trading of equities.
The Wall Street investment bank says the cuts reflect market preferences for either 'low-touch' electronic trading for routine large volume order flow or 'high-touch' large value trading requiring more input from human traders.
Goldman says it will transfer more of the functions performed by its US stock traders to sales/traders who are better equipped to help clients make informed choices about whether to execute their trades electronically or via the trading desk.
Michael Ryan, the firm's co-head of global equities says about 50% of trades and trading decisions made by Goldman's clients occur through computers and other automated, or algorithmic, strategies that bypass traders in the firm's offices.
The firm recently announced that trading revenue had dropped 22% in the second quarter of 2005 compared to the second quarter of 2004.