The important thing about internalization in this context isn't who takes the other side, but the fact that the trade gets done before it even reaches an exchan

The important thing about internalization in this context isn't who takes the other side, but the fact that the trade gets done before it even reaches an exchange. You're right that it usually refers to a market maker taking the other side as principal off exchange. > To clarify, Goldmans are offering to buy* futures their clients want to sell, if they can line up one of their other clients/counterparties to buy it from Goldmans at the same time. This is not what clearing means. You're talking about execution. They'll still clear the trades even if you execute away. There's not really anything else I can add to this discussion. An imperfect analogy is that you're buying the futures with a credit card and Goldman will step in and pay the bill if you can't.