Goldman's COO Cohen Makes Radical Proposals While Sounding Mainstream

As high-frequency trading (HFT) moves into the government’s crosshairs, with concerns speedy traders are accessing markets with undue advantage, Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) Chief Operating Gary Cohen weighs in with an editorial in the Wall Street Journal – and he surprisingly touches on some rather sensitive topics. Cohen begins his ‘opiniontorial’ by lauding today’s markets “narrower spreads, faster execution and lower overall explicit costs to trading stocks.” It should be noted that these issues have been cited by market makers to have  led to the profit compression in the business of providing two-sided markets utilizing a non-directional market strategy. …