Best Trading desks at Goldman Sachs

Hey guys, I will be starting at Goldman in the summer as a securities intern and was wondering what you all thought were their strongest desks coming out of this financial crisis? Aside, from their prop desks (which i had the opportunity to intern with) who are not taking on any interns for full-time. So doing a summer within one of those groups to me would be pointless.

 

Everyone always asks this question, and while some desks may be "stronger" than others, its much more important that you fit in with the desk and enjoy the product. So that means looking into whether you would like micro/macro, flow/prop, etc, etc which has all been talked about to the point of ad nauseum... and that's just been in the last week.

Obviously if you can get onto their prop desk that would be sick.

Jack: They’re all former investment bankers who were laid off from that economic crisis that Nancy Pelosi caused. They have zero real world skills, but God they work hard. -30 Rock
 

Sorry for being slow, but what belongs to micro and what belongs to macro? I know prop means trading for own account, then does flow mean trading for clients?

Revsly:
Everyone always asks this question, and while some desks may be "stronger" than others, its much more important that you fit in with the desk and enjoy the product. So that means looking into whether you would like micro/macro, flow/prop, etc, etc which has all been talked about to the point of ad nauseum... and that's just been in the last week.

Obviously if you can get onto their prop desk that would be sick.

 

This kid's name is ***** ******** from Cornell University, one of the biggest tools I have ever seen. He got extremely lucky last year and ended up at JP Morgan as a sophomore through the Bear Stearns FAST interview process and now thinks he's some big shot. I am in the same business fraternity as him, you can guess which one, and everyone hates him. As you can see from some of his previous posts, this guy is as bad, if not worse than dipset and London.

 
akpsiforlife:
This kid's name is from Cornell University, one of the biggest tools I have ever seen. He got extremely lucky last year and ended up at JP Morgan as a sophomore through the Bear Stearns FAST interview process and now thinks he's some big shot. I am in the same business fraternity as him, you can guess which one, and everyone hates him. As you can see from some of his previous posts, this guy is as bad, if not worse than dipset and London.

Wow. Just wow.

 
akpsiforlife:
This kid's name is from Cornell University, one of the biggest tools I have ever seen. He got extremely lucky last year and ended up at JP Morgan as a sophomore through the Bear Stearns FAST interview process and now thinks he's some big shot. I am in the same business fraternity as him, you can guess which one, and everyone hates him. As you can see from some of his previous posts, this guy is as bad, if not worse than dipset and London.

You bruised his asshole.

 

Wow - the original poster got owned. Either he is a total shithead and deserves it or the guy who "outed" him is a complete asshole.

So the takeaway is: the second worst person to be, is to be an asshole no one likes. The worst person to be is the guy who fluffs the second worst person (i.e. trade4size).

Oh well... I'm editing his name out. It's a little too much exposure even if the kid is an asshole (and judging from his post history, certainly seems to fit the bill).

 

micro does not make any sense. that guy doesnt know what he's talking about. when people say macro they usually mean trading in products tied to fundamentals in the larger economy (e.g. rates) I think sometimes people also think of EM and FX when they think of a macro trading desk.

yes flow means making markets for clients- being committed to offer bid/ask quotes all the time and making money from bid/ask spreads and (hopefully) the capital appreciation in your standing inventory. So flow involves a little bit of what you may consider prop. But you only have a limited control of what your standing inventory is and making a market is the first priority. besides goldman many banks have said they will stop engaging in significant prop but people are greedy so this may or may not last.

 

I once heard some manager referring micro to equities and CDS. Maybe it is because the products traded in equities and CDS markets represent view on each individual corporations.

Philosopher:
micro does not make any sense. that guy doesnt know what he's talking about. when people say macro they usually mean trading in products tied to fundamentals in the larger economy (e.g. rates) I think sometimes people also think of EM and FX when they think of a macro trading desk.

yes flow means making markets for clients- being committed to offer bid/ask quotes all the time and making money from bid/ask spreads and (hopefully) the capital appreciation in your standing inventory. So flow involves a little bit of what you may consider prop. But you only have a limited control of what your standing inventory is and making a market is the first priority. besides goldman many banks have said they will stop engaging in significant prop but people are greedy so this may or may not last.

 
Best Response

yea, the names all get confusing, especially with the acronyms: lots of Ss, Ps, and GS. to name a few:

GSPS - Goldman Sachs Principal Strategies SPSG - Strategic Portfolio Solutions Group SSG - Special Situations Group PFI - Principal Funding and Investment PSI - Principal Strategic Investments

to answer the original question, any of the prop desks are extremely difficult to get - they offer placed internships for the summer, so if you haven't already been assigned to one of them, you're not going to rotate on them (though it's possible to network and land a job on them for FT).

as far as the rotational desks go, the "hard-to-get" ones depend on a) what the rest of the intern class thinks is hot, and b) how many people a particular desk plans on hiring (simple supply and demand right).

so, for example, Emerging Markets hired one person in sales and maybe one person in trading from the summer, so by that metric, it could be considered hard to get. Commodities is always highly sought after, so it could be considered hard to get.

 

This is very general, but broadly speaking, strong in equities - not so much in FICC. I'm sure other people can provide more detail with regards to individual desks. That being said, a ton of cuts in terms of head count on the equity side in the last few years.

“Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be”
 

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