Goldman Sachs Will Open-Source Some Of Its Trading Software (wsj.com) 51
According to the Wall Street Journal, Goldman Sachs is planning to release on GitHub some of the code that its traders and engineers use to price securities and analyze and manage risk. "The bank also is offering $100,000 in annual funding for engineers to build new applications using the bank's code," the report adds. "Goldman will own the resulting intellectual property, plus get an early look to invest in promising technology." From the report: It is Goldman's latest move to shed some of its trademark secrecy and share its once closely guarded technology. It is part of a broader shift at Wall Street firms to emulate Silicon Valley giants like Google and Facebook, which have opened up their technology to a community of enthusiastic developers. By letting outsiders tinker with its code, Goldman hopes to crowdsource new uses for it and earn the loyalty of computer-driven "quant" traders who have taken the investing world by storm.
Goldman's proprietary trading engine, known as SecDB, once made its traders the smartest on Wall Street. It is credited with helping the firm weather the 2008 financial meltdown better than rivals. But a postcrisis ban on proprietary trading has made it more valuable as a service offered to clients than an in-house moneymaker. Over the past five years, Goldman has been building SecDB's capabilities into a web application called Marquee, which now has about 13,000 users roughly split between Goldman employees and clients. The code coming to GitHub will allow users to interact directly with Marquee's data feeds, pricing engines and other tools.
Goldman's proprietary trading engine, known as SecDB, once made its traders the smartest on Wall Street. It is credited with helping the firm weather the 2008 financial meltdown better than rivals. But a postcrisis ban on proprietary trading has made it more valuable as a service offered to clients than an in-house moneymaker. Over the past five years, Goldman has been building SecDB's capabilities into a web application called Marquee, which now has about 13,000 users roughly split between Goldman employees and clients. The code coming to GitHub will allow users to interact directly with Marquee's data feeds, pricing engines and other tools.
What exactly? (Score:1)
Is it the smarts or a client API for their proprietary service which will remain closed?
The $100k funding + keep the copyright for derivative works makes it look very NOT open, more an audition for prospective employees.
Re: (Score:2)
That's what I was wondering too.
I didn't read the article though, if they take ownership, but it's dual licensed open also I think that's still OK.
They can take ownership and offer GPL too, leaving themselves as the only people allowed to use the new property closed and things remain open source.
But the way things are written, I suspect it's closer to a shared source situation.
Re: (Score:1)
GPL *WINK*
"Code available" != "Open Source" != "FOSS" (Score:2)
Just because they may the code available on github, does not mean that it will be licensed in such a way that makes it either Open Source or FOSS.
Re: (Score:1)
Bailout (Score:2)
GS was bailed out by the taxpayer to the tune of $14 billion. How "smart" is their "strategy"?
Re: (Score:3)
Their strategy is brilliant. Collect a percentage if things go well, lose someone else's money if things go poorly, and have the government cover any extra losses if they run out of that someone else's money
Note, that strategy is not related to the software they are publishing at all.
The "we'll give you 10$ to solve billion$ problem" (Score:2)
It's not the code that's the problem, it's access (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
It's easier than you think.
Interactive Brokers has an API [interactivebrokers.com].
The hard part is that this is like the ultimate in software challenges.
Bugs cost real money, be it increased commissions or uncontrolled losses.
If there's a way to set a max loss circuit breaker, I'd be all for it.
Open but not frzz (Score:2)
Goldman will own the resulting intellectual property
This is non-free opensource, obviously.
When the code relies on fiber links from Chi to NY (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:When the code relies on fiber links from Chi to (Score:4, Informative)
Microseconds, not milliseconds.
Re: (Score:1)
it could be part of the strategy. release code with known problems, then write another algo to take advantage of that public code that everyone will attempt to use.
Re: (Score:1)
My understanding is they paid a lot of money 10-15 years ago to dig a tunnel from Chicago to New York city for the sole purpose of shaving a few ms off following the curvature of the earth.
I thought the big brokers built microwave links from Chicago to NYC, to minimize the straight (great circle) distance. Even a dedicated fiber link requires numerous kinks and bends, around lakes (Michigan and Erie), rivers, towns, roads, and other rights of way, adding a lot of distance.
A tunnel with no curvature, straight through the Earth from Chicago to NYC, would be 15.9 miles below the surface at its deepest. The tunnel's length (709 miles) would be very slightly shorter than the distance of an (opti
Re: (Score:2)
Some stock exchanges uses miles and miles of coiled up fibre to slow down trading for people located physically near by, to put everyone on a level playing field.
https://youtu.be/d8BcCLLX4N4 [youtu.be]
Don't make me laugh (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh please, Goldman dudes, don't make me laugh. Anybody who can write the kind of stuff you hope for can easily pull down three times your entire reward budget in a year, at minimum. Nobody with the ability to write something worth real money is going to hand you copyright for that pittance.
Re: Don't make me laugh (Score:1)
Hey here is an open source project want to contribute? You get nothing. Yes please, here is my pr please please review it, Iâ(TM)ve addressed all the nits.
Hey here is an open source project want to contribute? If we like it you get 100k. Get lost that doesnâ(TM)t cover my effort
Re: (Score:3)
You overlooked the part where you sign your copyright over to Goldman.
What are they open sourcing.. ? (Score:2)
There's a paywall on the article. I'm not sure but perhaps the article is referring to this blog from 2017...
https://www.goldmansachs.com/c... [goldmansachs.com]
If you read through it, they're open sourcing their plumbing. There's no analytical components listed, just propriety systems they created for which equivalent technologies already exist.
In any case the access to real time market data is far more valuable than the intellectual property of the software processing it. Companies like Goldman Sachs know that their true
...and they put it in the Microsoft walled garden. (Score:2)
SETS and Argus were heads and shoulders better (Score:1)
Easy way to make money (Score:2)
Nice try (Score:2)