> I think I tend to automatically think of Goldman as being relatively small and full of bankers coming up with crazy ideas for weird trades or products, I thi

> I think I tend to automatically think of Goldman as being relatively small and full of bankers coming up with crazy ideas for weird trades or products, I think that was the case in the 80s maybe. Alongside obviously traditional investment banking. Emanuel Derman is a legendary quant who was at Goldman for quite a few years and has a great autobiography 'My Life As A Quant' which describes Goldman at the time as quite a small company, relatively speaking. There is also infamous internal resistance to doing anything too related to consumer banking, which is only just being overcome. People at GS wanted to focus on the glamorous stuff like structured products or mergers and acquisitions, and worried that moving into e.g. retail saving accounts would cause a drop in prestige.