The bank that never knowingly made a loss on more than one day during the third quarter has — via its 10-q filing — provided further detail on the nature and success of its trading activities in the three months to September 2009.
First, a reminder of how Goldman Sachs’ trading and principal investments division performed during the period, as per the results statement the bank issued in October:
- Net revenues in the division were $10.03bn compared to $2.704bn in the third quarter of 2008 and $10.78bn in the second quarter.
- Net revenues in equities (which include Goldman’s market making and specialist businesses) rose by 79 per cent to $2.78bn compared to the third quarter of 2008 — but were down on revenues of $3.18bn in the previous three months to June 2009.
- Net revenues in FICC (fixed income, currency and commodities) rose by 375 per cent to $5.991bn compared to the third quarter of 2008 — but were also down on revenues in the previous quarter of $6.8bn.
- Operating expenses for the entire trading and principal investment division, meanwhile, increased by 60 per cent compared to the third quarter to $5.55bn on “increased compensation and benefits expenses resulting from higher net revenues”.
- Overall, Goldman’s ratio of compensation and benefits to net revenues fell to 43.3 per cent for the third quarter of 2009 compared with 48 per cent for the third quarter of 2008, while total staff increased 2 per cent during the third quarter of 2009.
And now for the breakdown of gain/losses by major product type in Q3:
And how they compare to Q2:
It seems credit, interest rates and equities were all up on the quarter, although commodities underperformed.
On the currency front, meanwhile, Goldman’s ‘loss’ more than doubled to $3.617bn from $1,398bn the previous quarter – suggesting a potential rise in cross-asset FX hedging at the bank.
Related links:
Goldman traders enjoy $100m-a-day profits – FT
Goldman’s friendly and finessed results – FT Alphaville