zerohedge is arguing that GS makes their profits from front-running clients rather than "true" high frequency trading or stat arb. I don't know if that is true or not.
Front-running is what the street assumed Madoff was doing. It is a convenient scapegoat to explain fabulous returns. Any firm who was getting front-ran would see this and switch brokers.
Funny how the company's employees need to fill in a pile of paperwork and wait for a month before they can buy/sell anything but the same rule doesn't apply to the company itself.
I have read more than one technical description of how they are in fact front running, one may have been on (or linked from) market-ticker.denninger.net.
We know they have access to a special tier, we know they have this real time software, and we know they have unprecedented profit records (not just in $, but in successful days). Do you think maybe something funny is going on?
