Global Markets

Operating at the center of global financial markets, our Global Markets professionals serve institutional clients including Asset Managers, Hedge Funds, Banks and Brokerages, Pensions, Endowments and Foundations, Corporations, and Governments. 

We seek to deliver to our clients leading market insight, risk management and execution, helping them to raise money, invest, and transfer risk across financial asset classes.

 

 

Global Markets Business Groups

Client Commission Management

The Client Commission Management (CCM) Group is a global business responsible for serving the commission account management needs of our execution clients, including hedge funds, institutions and other financial service providers.

CCM programs enable clients to leverage a portion of the trading commissions generated with Goldman Sachs to pay for research and brokerage services consistent with applicable regulations. Our client service offering encompasses:

  • Client commission account management, via one of the following:
    - Client Commission Arrangement
    - Commission Sharing Arrangement
    - Fully disclosed Introducing Broker/Correspondent Clearing Arrangement
  • Web portal to track commission account balances, transactions and research services provided
  • Relationship management, including industry and general business trends
  • Operational management, including trade reconciliation and payment processing
  • Customized solutions for trade allocation across execution platforms
  • Broker consolidation programs

Our team is committed to providing excellence in our service offerings, enhanced reporting and technologies as well as quality programs to assist clients with their independent research and brokerage payment needs. If you are interested in learning more, please contact the Client Commission Management Group. 

 

Convertibles

With expertise in both credit and equity derivative products, our team provides clients with guidance on and access to investment opportunities across a wide range of exchange traded and OTC equity-linked products.

Our global convertible franchise across North America, Europe and Asia provides strong execution services in convertible bonds, convertible preferreds and the expanding warrant market. Goldman consistently ranks as one of the top underwriters of convertibles.

 

Credit

We provide insight and services to help institutional clients invest in a wide range of credit products, including bank loans, investment grade, high yield and municipal debt, in both cash and derivative form.

We also work closely with our financing team to provide our institutional clients a distribution channel for new issues in investment grade and high yield corporate debt, municipal debt and bank loans.

 

Commodities

For governments, corporations, investors and financial institutions worldwide, we provide full service commodity risk management and financing services, covering sectors such as oil, refined products, natural gas, power, bulk commodities, metals and agricultural products.

Our international teams offer superior expertise across derivative and physical products, world-class block trading and leading Commodities research through the firm’s Global Investment Research division.

Code of Conduct with respect to Price Reporting [PDF, 90 KB] 

 

Equities

Our global equities professionals provide ideas, execution, and liquidity to a wide array of clients focused on trading the entire range of equity products, from physical shares, to ETFs, to synthetic shares and baskets, to options and other derivatives.

 

Foreign Exchange

With our foreign exchange teams around the world, we deliver both the global reach and local knowledge that are key to our clients’ success. Industry professionals, along with recent surveys and polls, recognize our team’s strategic consultation skills, superior execution, award-winning technology and excellence in research through the firm’s Global Investment Research division. 

 

Growth Markets

Our sales and trading professionals help investors find new opportunities in global emerging economies. Our team’s deep local market expertise allows them to assess market risk and access local exchanges to help clients deal with the complexities of international transactions.

The multi product sales force can transact in fixed income, equities and commodities across various asset classes: foreign exchange, rates, derivatives, credit, structured products, shares and synthetics. 

 

 

Interest Rates

As a global dealer in 17 government securities, as well as in interest rate derivatives, mortgages pass-throughs, agencies and inflation linked products, we provide liquidity to institutional clients worldwide.

Our expertise in cash and derivative products, along with our deep knowledge of our markets and clients allows us to offer solutions and market insight to help clients manage global interest rates exposures and hedge macroeconomic risks, such as inflation and growth.

 

Mortgages

The Mortgage franchise is a diverse global business that strives for excellence across product lines and geographies:

We make markets for our institutional clients in loans, derivatives, and securities across the following products:

  • Residential mortgages
     
  • Agency mortgage-backed securities
     
  • Commercial mortgages
     
  • Asset-backed loans and receivables

We also work closely with our financing teams to provide our institutional clients with lending facilities and a distribution channel for new issue securities.

 

Systematic Trading Strategies

The Systematic Trading Strategies (STS) Group is a global team responsible for building indices/strategies for all products traded within the Securities Division globally.  READ MORE

Goldman Sachs Electronic Trading

Prime Services

Our Prime Brokerage Group provides services to help hedge funds manage risk, monitor their portfolios, maintain liquidity and build their businesses.

Capital Introduction

Our Capital Introduction team provides our hedge fund clients with targeted introductions to the world’s leading pension plans, endowments, foundations, family offices, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, funds of funds, private banks and consultants.

Working seamlessly across our global network, our team can track, synthesize and utilize the information gained from our manager and investor relationships to make effective client introductions.

Pre-Marketing “Consultative” Work

  • Feedback on written materials and verbal pitch
  • Competitive landscape analysis
  • Fund positioning
  • Terms and fees
  • Target prospect list
  • Product expansion

Introduction Programs

  • Targeted introductions to a bespoke group of investors
  • Quarterly Milestones publication announcing new launches

Investor Events and Conferences

  • Large-scale conferences in the U.S., Europe and Asia
  • Regional forums in New York, Boston, Chicago, Washington D.C., Dallas, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Tokyo, London, Geneva, Zurich and Milan
  • Specialized events by strategy focus, investor type and/or theme

Hedge Fund Industry Analysis

  • Annual investor survey
  • Quarterly webcast on hedge fund trends and themes
  • Customized reporting based on client needs

 

Clearing

Our Clearing expertise helps clients execute and settle transactions on over 97% of the world’s equities and derivatives exchanges.

Our capabilities combine professional service with a back office platform that allows us to clear 3 million trades per day.

Our platform provides a full set of tools that allow clients to work with multiple asset classes and currencies in a single consolidated account. Our clearing professionals complement this with a range of services, including consulting, risk management and securities lending.

The benefits of our solution include:

Experience. We have been serving the professional trading community for more than 30 years.

Global Platform and Technology. We offer a truly global platform, presenting clients with one consolidated account across asset classes and regions — and we support it with robust and stable clearing infrastructure.

Risk Management. Our professionals conduct proprietary stress tests with single margin requirement and cross product netting.

Reporting. Clients can choose from a comprehensive suite of multi-asset-class, multi-currency reports as well as sophisticated portfolio and performance reporting.

Dedicated Client Service. We offer superior coverage, training and integration.
Multiple Asset Classes. Clients can trade cash equities, futures, options, foreign exchange and fixed income instruments.

Execution Solutions. Via Goldman Sachs Electronic Trading (GSET), we provide direct market access, algorithmic trading strategies, smart order routing and access to non-displayed liquidity.

 

Client Services

Every organization has different needs, and we work closely with our clients to develop customized solutions that draw on the expertise and resources of Goldman Sachs.

Our client service professionals act as a central point of contact, working with legal, compliance, risk, operations and technology to execute long- and short-term strategies. They engage with corporate action as well as trade and cash-management personnel, ensuring that every client's business is fully supported.

We provide 24-hour global coverage with over 100 experienced professionals located across the US, Europe and Asia. They have extensive practical experience in account management as well as broad operational expertise. Our experts offer in-depth knowledge of financial products, combined with local and global market intelligence, allowing us to service a variety of sophisticated business strategies.

 

Derivatives Clearing Services

Goldman Sachs has been a market leader in the evolution of OTC Clearing.

We participated in the initial launch of interest rate swaps and credit default swaps clearing for clients in December 2009 and will fully support client clearing in these products as the markets continue to evolve and expand. To support customer clearing for derivatives that were previously done bilaterally, Goldman Sachs has created Derivatives Clearing Services (DCS). The DCS team is aligned with and was built out of our globally recognized Prime Brokerage and Futures clearing business to maximize efficiency and provide consolidated reporting across asset classes.

DCS is designed to streamline the client clearing experience across products, asset classes and regions. In addition to credit default swaps and interest rate swaps, DCS will also support centralized clearing for foreign exchange, commodities and equity swaps as they become clearing-eligible. Our DCS business offers our clients numerous benefits including access to all major clearinghouses globally, margin solutions and optimized collateral management.


Objective Criteria for the Acceptance of Customers for Clearing

Goldman Sachs’s decision to provide swaps clearing services to any client is determined based on some or all of the following criteria: (i) the client’s credit profile, (ii) the client’s capital and other financial resources, (iii) the client’s expertise in trading complex financial products, including swaps, (iv) the operational, liquidity and risk management capabilities of the client in trading financial products, including swaps, (v) the types of swaps that the client intends to trade and clear at Goldman Sachs, (vi) whether Goldman Sachs has the ability to clear the swaps the client is intending to trade, (vii) whether commercial and legal terms can be agreed with the client, (viii) the approach the client takes to legal and compliance issues, (ix) satisfaction by the client of Goldman Sachs’s client on-boarding requirements, (x) Goldman Sachs’s credit exposure, capital and other financial resources/condition, and (xi) any other relevant objective considerations.

 

Futures

With over 30 years of experience, Goldman Sachs has an extensive global footprint in the futures market covering 55 major derivatives exchanges worldwide.

Goldman, Sachs & Co. is regularly listed among the largest FCMs with respect to the amount of segregated and secured funds held on behalf of customers according to data published by the CFTC. The size and diversification of our client base, along with the amount of Goldman Sachs capital committed to the business, provide our clients with added security.

Voice Execution. Our agency-only futures desk has extensive experience executing futures and options on futures. Our presence in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, London, Hong Kong, Sydney and Tokyo ensures that our clients receive a global perspective and 24-hour coverage. Our voice execution desk helps clients navigate today’s volatile markets by providing market insight and analysis of trade flows across asset classes.

Electronic Trading. We provide our clients with numerous options for electronic execution via many industry trading platforms, including REDIPlus. In addition to electronic execution platforms, Goldman Sachs provides integrated solutions with a broad selection of ISV and OMS platforms as well as connectivity to client-developed software. We also offer clients access to advanced and customizable trading strategies through our futures algorithm suite.

Clearing and Reporting. We offer clients secure access to a sophisticated suite of reports and tools through our GS 360 Portal, including real-time trade reporting, robust clearing data, and customizable report sets. Additionally, we offer work flow tools to assist clients in the daily reconciliation of trade and cash flows as well as interactive margin tools. GS 360 allows clients to customize reports, query archived data and subscribe to receive reports in a variety of formats and flexible delivery methods.

 

Hedge Fund Consulting

Our Consulting Services team helps hedge fund managers launch, support and build their businesses. With over a decade of experience and offices located across the US, Europe and Asia, we combine local focus with global expertise and coordination.

Our team members include industry veterans with backgrounds in areas such as accounting, law, technology, operations, fund administration and property and infrastructure.

Our Services

Our team is aligned into four practice areas:

Organizational planning, including budgeting and cash flow projection, service provider selection, investor due diligence process preparation and consulting on compliance and governance.

Property and infrastructure consulting, covering real-estate sourcing strategies, architectural and engineering considerations, project management, network design and consulting, contract and proposal review and more.

Business Consulting, including vendor analysis and introduction, systems implementation, workflow construction, in-sourcing vs. out-sourcing analysis and structural considerations.

Human Resources, for issues including talent sourcing strategies, compensation, policies and procedures, HR service provider selection, employee training, succession planning and employment separation.

 

Reporting and Technology

We offer a global, multi-asset class, multi-currency reporting and technology platform that scales with clients as they expand into new strategies, markets and products.

It covers everything from real-time portfolio management applications to post-trade operations utilities and portfolio accounting reports. This allows us to assist our clients throughout the lifecycle of the trade and across their organization.

Access and Integration

We understand the importance of supporting our global clients across a wide range of investment strategies and products. Our flexible infrastructure allows for customizable solutions to meet clients’ specific needs. We offer a wide range of data formats and secure delivery options, and we work to integrate our solutions with our clients’ existing systems.

Service and Support

Client service is a key component of all our solutions. We have business professionals and experienced prime brokerage technologists available to provide training and support, and our global Client Technology Services team responds to client inquiries 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

 

Risk Management and Financing

The Prime Brokerage Group provides financing solutions and risk models that allow hedge fund managers to execute a wide range of investment strategies, while still providing a framework that is predictable and reliable across all market conditions.

We strive to:

  • Optimize leverage in line with our clients’ financing and asset protection needs.
     
  • Implement predictable and stable margin policies.
     
  • Deliver intuitive and relevant risk management analytics.
     
  • Build strong lines of communication with our clients.

Risk Modeling

Our modeling of risk is comprehensive and designed to fully reflect our clients’ strategies within a single and flexible stress test. This test is intuitive, transparent and stable, using clearly stated, predefined scenarios that are not sensitive to prevailing market volatility. Using this model we are able to provide a unified risk methodology across all factors, including equity, credit, interest rates, foreign exchange, volatility and liquidity.

 

Securities Lending

As the premier global provider of securities lending services, we offer our clients industry-leading insights into securities lending flow and superior access to supply. 

With trading hubs in London, New York, Hong Kong, and Tokyo, our global team provides 24-hour access to over 50 developed and emerging markets. We have a strong reputation for significant and longstanding relationships built on the fundamentals of client service, borrow liquidity and borrow protection.

 

Synthetics

The Equity Synthetic Platform provides solutions such as efficient single stock and index exposure, market access, and custom hedges to a wide range of clients.

The platform allows for various structures and can be flexible according to clients’ preferences. We tailor reset schedules, timing and frequency of settlements, contract maturity, cash flow exchanges and unwind methodology, among other features.

Clients have access to a full global suite of equity exposure across index, sector, custom basket, futures and single stocks. We provide execution via both our high and low-touch channels.