Meet the secretive electronic trading pool Goldman Sachs is considering dumping

No, Sigma X is not a Goldman Sachs fraternity. It’s the electronic trading platform the bank may be about to shutter (paywall), the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. (People familiar with Goldman’s thinking tell Quartz that the firm hasn’t made any decision on the platform.) Goldman uses Sigma X to help companies and hedge-fund clients sell big blocks of shares. Closing it wouldn’t be all that surprising, given recent events in the marketplace: Regulators including the Department of Justice have intensified their scrutiny of electronic trading and high-frequency traders in particular. After penning his latest novel Flash Boys, Michael Lewis created a relative storm of controversy on the Street by proclaiming the the markets “rigged.” Goldman president and COO Gary Cohn wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal backing curbs on HFTs, and the firm issued a memo supporting a Sigma X rival, IEX Group, featured in the aforementioned Flash Boys. Reports emerged that Goldman is in talks to sell its equity market-making unit, formerly known as Spear, Leeds & Kellogg, to a Dutch firm. So here’s the short history of Goldman’s dalliance with Sigma X more @ http://qz.com/197261/meet-the-secretive-electronic-trading-pool-goldman-sachs-is-considering-dumping/