A common complaint from Wall Street bosses is that investors don’t give proper credit for the vast amounts of money that rolls in from flipping shares and bonds. Goldman Sachs’ windfall from equities trading shows why this bothers them — and also justifies investors’ preference for more predictable sources of income.
Goldman made $4.2bn of equities trading revenue in the first three months of 2025. Its chief rivals Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan, which reported earnings days earlier, made around $4bn each. It was a record for all, and an unanticipated one. Their combined $12bn from shifting stocks was about 24 per cent more than expected, according to Visible Alpha.
It’s not true to say investors don’t care about this milestone — but it’s clear they’re not terribly moved. While Goldman’s earnings were 14 per cent higher than analysts had projected, the stock rose 2 per cent on Monday, suggesting this isn’t the kind of boost that’s expected to last. The same, more or less, applied to Morgan Stanley days earlier.