It looks like Goldman Sachs was starting to worry about all those stories claiming that the firm trades against clients’ interest, takes positions that are different from what they told clients, and favors some clients with advance word of its market views.

So it sent an email making it perfect clear: Goldman is totally doing those things.

A senior Goldman executive sent an e-mail to clients on Tuesday warning that the firm may have shared investment ideas with the firm’s proprietary trading group or some clients before sharing them with others. It said it may trade ahead of disclosing those idea to clients, and may trade out of positions or change its mind about the ideas without warning.

Andrew Ross Sorkin at the New York Times obtained a copy of the email.

It was basically a big fat caveat emptor to clients. Some highlights:
* “We may trade, and may have existing positions, based on Trading Ideas before we have discussed those Trading Ideas with you.”
* “We will also discuss Trading Ideas with other clients, both before and after we have discussed them with you.”
* “You should not consider Trading Ideas as objective or independent research or as investment advice.”
* “Any opinions that we express when we discuss Trading Ideas with you will be our present opinions only and we will not have any obligation to update you in the event of a change of circumstances or a change of our opinion.”