I have recently got an offer from Goldman Sachs, Bangalore location. I would be joining in June. I have heard they ask the employees to close their personal trading accounts. Is this true? I would be working on the tech side and joining one of the engineering team and not the actual banking team. will this apply to me as well?
Yes, all employees at GS including contractors have huge restrictions around trading. Most regions allow for the opening of trading accounts at designated brokers but you cannot trade in single share stocks, only broad market indexes, FX, commods, etc. Unless it's a retirement account, you will have to liquidate all non approved holdings within a short period of time after joining. Recommend you do so before your first day to prevent significant amounts of extra paper work.
This is so disappointing. I might have to rethink joining here, liquidating in this market is not an option for me.
haha, bought high, sell low.
What about mutual funds? Would I have to liquidate those too?
No restrictions on trading open ended mutual funds
if pay jump from GS can cover your stock loss, you should join ,right?
Haha yeah it does cover, but not being able to trade as long as I am there is kinda making me have second thoughts
"having to liquidate everything" seems grossly incorrect notion. What the rules dictate is holding period and account declaration. You cannot buy stock today and sell it tommorrow . As long you declare your holding account or move it to one of the standard Goldman ones like Fidelity and don't day trade or use NPI to trade you will be fine.
Oh that's better. As long as I do not have to liquidate my previous holdings I would be fine
How much money do you reasonably make from trading vs buying SPY/VOO? If your legit return (including short term capital gains vs long term) is greater than the salary bump/future expected earnings at GS, then yea, don’t join lol. But I think that’s unlikely.
Haha correct. In fact, I am in heavy losses and that is why didn't wanna book these losses in this market conditions if gs asks me to liquidate after joining
They wouldn’t ask you to liquidate
Hmmm... it's standard in finance to report brokerage activity. You will have most likely not only have to have all brokerage account statements sent to compliance per year, but they may tell you to close a specific account if their standards are not up to GS's. This is a price you have to pay to work in finance. Having your all your accounts closed is suspect though. I would be surprised if they was true. People on finance invest in various instruments. They are just heavily monitored.
TC?
You can transfer your personal accounts to be managed under GS. You may have to close accounts they do not sponsor. And if your spouse has personal accounts, it’s the same
Just had this conversation in a GS interview yesterday. I think it's true
Is it true for all the teams? Even the engineering team?
it is true for all employees of all FINRA regulated firms, including GS