Goldman Sachs (GS), as you know, really took advantage of the great industry-wide pullback in risk in the wake of the financial meltdown. While other banks scaled back in trading, Goldman Sachs charged forward, and reaped the rewards. The lack of competition led to soaring spreads and fat commissions-and the good old days of trading seemed to be back. But is it now ending? We've said for a while that competition would step up, and that may be showing up in Goldman Sachs' bottom line.

Reuters notes a research note from Atlantic Equities that says the bank's quarterly revenue will likely fall 25 percent sequentially in the fourth quarter. The culprit seems to be a sharp slowdown in fixed income and equity trading. It may be that investors are locking in profits ahead of the year end. But you cannot discount the competition. Revenues have declined from $13.8 billion in the second quarter to $12.4 billion in the third quarter. Atlantic Equities now expects fourth-quarter revenue of $9.3 billion. 

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