Since 2000, Goldman Sach's New York headquarters has reduced their number of equity traders from 600 to just 2 thanks to the growing implementation of automated trading programs at some of the world's largest banks. Technology Review investigates this move to electronic trading as a whole.
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As Goldman Embraces Automation, Even the Masters of the Universe Are Threatened
The experience of its New York traders is just one early example of a transformation of Goldman Sachs, and increasingly other Wall Street firms, that began with the rise in computerized trading, but has accelerated over the past five years, moving into more fields of finance that humans once dominated. Chavez, who will become chief financial officer in April, 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. Today, nearly 45 percent of trading is done electronically, according to Coalition, a U.K. firm that tracks the industry. In addition to back-office clerical workers, on Wall Street machines are replacing a lot of highly paid people, too.
