Goldman, Sachs & Co. ("Goldman Sachs") is publishing statistical information about our execution of market and limit orders in those NMS securities in which we are a designated market maker.
Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") rules require securities exchanges, alternative trading systems and market makers such as Goldman Sachs to publicly disclose statistics in a number of standardized categories based on certain assumptions about order execution and order routing practices. You should note that based on the SEC's requirements, these statistics only capture a minority of Goldman Sachs' order flow.
The required statistics are intended to provide a
baseline to facilitate comparisons of execution quality among and between market
makers, alternative trading systems, and other trading venues. However, they do
not provide a complete comparison across trading venues, because each venue's
statistics reflect only the types of orders it has received which are in turn
based on its customers' or users particular objectives. Accordingly, the
statistics do not create a reliable basis on which to assess whether Goldman
Sachs or any other trading venue has satisfied its duty of best execution. From
time to time the Firm may determine it necessary to update its monthly Rule 605
data. All reports, original and amended, are available upon request.
The
SEC has made it clear that investors should take into account a number of
factors in evaluating the quality of their order executions and in making order
routing decisions. These include the size of the order, whether the dealer
commits its capital to enhance liquidity for the customer, market conditions,
customer objectives, technological capabilities, and other services provided by
the dealer.
We have made every attempt to prepare these statistics in
compliance with the SEC's rules. However, these statistics have not been audited
and may contain errors. Accordingly, any decision about whether to open an
account or to direct orders to Goldman Sachs should not be based solely on these
statistics, but on an evaluation of the full range of services that we
provide.
