The first quarter is typically a busy one for trading as investors at hedge funds, pensions and other active managers start their performance cycles anew. That was especially true this year; hours after his January swearing-in ceremony, Trump said that he would soon implement tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico. The next month, he began escalating trade tensions with China, while also targeting specific industries and products like automobiles and steel. The dynamic — in which Trump introduced, and then scaled back sweeping tariffs with profound implications for American businesses — reached a fever pitch in early April, around his so-called "Liberation Day" announcements. That's when markets began making historic moves, as both equities and government bonds whipsawed amid the chaos. The heightened activity levels could mean that the second quarter is even more profitable for Wall Street's giants than the first. "We obviously saw significant moves in equity markets as people positioned for a different kind of trade policy during March" that led to "higher activity for us in a variety of ways," Goldman CEO David Solomon told analysts on Monday. So far in the second quarter, "the business is performing very well and clients are very active" Solomon said. Wall Street has evolved since the 2008 financial crisis, which consolidated trading and investment banking among fewer, larger firms after Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns were wiped out. Led by folks including Morgan Stanley's Pick — who is credited with overhauling the firm's fixed income business and taking its equities franchise to new heights before he became CEO last year — Wall Street's dominant trading desks are providing ever-faster execution and larger credit lines to professional investors all over the world. Rather than wagering house money on bets, they have leaned more to facilitating trades and providing leverage for clients, meaning they profit from activity, whether markets go up or down. "We've been working with clients nonstop," Pick said on Friday. "For all of the concerns about what could come down the road in the real economy, the market-making and the ability to transact to clients as they up and down their leverage levels has been very orderly."