The fact that Goldman lost money in Q3 isn't nearly as surprising as the fact that the firm saw a year-over-year gain in equities trading. That runs against what nearly every Goldman competitor experienced. JPMorgan's equities trading declined 15%, while Citi's declined a whopping 73%. Goldman's was up by 18%, largely thanks to increased fees. Proprietary tradings is now gone thanks to the Volcker Rule. Now Wall Street firms mostly trade for something called "client execution," which means trading around positions taken by customers. This means that they no longer operate as outsized hedge funds but as market makers who try to profit while providing liquidity for clients. Goldman says the gain in its equities trading revenue was "primarily due to significantly higher commissions and fees, reflecting higher transaction volumes." JPMorgan and Citigroup must have had to take large losses as market makers, since they would also have profited from higher fees from high transaction volume. Goldman seems to have avoided suffering trading losses, which made its market making more profitable. That means one thing: Goldman is still better at trading than any other firm on Wall Street. [CNBC, 10/18/11]