Vitol - Commercial Analyst London Insight?

Hi All,

As the title suggests, does anyone have any insight into the CA role at Vitol London? I've been getting hounded by recruiters almost every few months about the role. A few have spoken about large bonuses given to their CA's and a quick search on LinkedIn yields a few front office S&T analysts have exited to there along with other strong backgrounds so this could be the case...?

Further, any ideas on what progression looks like? From what I've read on GlassDoor and this forum it seems like progression is non-existent for the CA's but these have been from a few years back. But again, this begs the question why are so many apparent 'high flyers' in these CA roles if it's commonly known that internal mobility is limited? Is it purely monetary?

Cheers.

 

Hi,I've also received a couple messages regarding the CA role and I think the salary and company name is what appeals to others. From what I've seen on glassdoor and LinkedIn, there does not seem to be any chance of progressing into a risk taking role. I'm currently prop trading my own book and the recruiters said that it would take 3+ years in analyst roles before you'd be considered for a risk taking role, however this does not seem to be the case for previous CA’s?

Best regards

 

Yeah I can’t get my head around what warrants the supposed high compensation, the job seems to be a glorified product control role? Are all CA’s product controllers or are some market analyst/trading analysts that help generate revenue for the book. If so, I haven’t seen a CA role advertised with a job description like that yet…

 
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I was recruited for the role but didn't end up taking it. This was for a US job but from what I gathered during the process the ideal candidate is basically the trader's right hand man/very junior trader. You do all the stuff that the trader doesn't want to deal with plus any ad-hoc analysis they want. A good candidate is someone that has the commercial acumen to do whatever is needed to help their trader out without having to be asked. They estimate daily PnL at the end of the day and call out what the drivers are (you need to understand the structure of the book and how price changes impact it), handle a lot of the relationship with the brokers as far as buying/selling derivatives for hedging, if there are new customers they have to set them up in the internal system, look into miscellaneous things for the trader(s), pull data and put together analyses when asked, etc. So yeah, it is a lot of what some places would call middle office but it also has front office components to it as well. When you run as lean as Vitol does it isn't quite structured like a bank. The role is a great position though because it gives junior people a chance to learn directly under a trader on a daily basis. This also gives you an opportunity to make an impression on someone that is obviously very good at what they do. This pays huge dividends down the road.

 

The post above is correct. I knew a guy who was at Vitol. As CA you usually remain in that role for 4-5 years before you are allowed to take risks if the opportunity comes up. Another thing to keep in mind is, in physical trading progression into a junior trader role takes much longer than at a bank. Typically you need to do ops and learn ops and understand ops unless you just want to be a paper trader. That easily takes 2 years or longer depending on when a seat comes avail. Add to that you also should be in the risk management team for a while you are easily looking at 3-5 years b4 moving into a trading role. 

The name of Vitol sells well in the market. So a couple of years as CA can mean you move to a risk taking position else where. however, the best feeder into a trading role in physical would be a trading program at a major.

 

Me neither. I guess they can afford to pay above the market averages? I was told the role would include monitoring risk, registering trades, reporting, assisting traders and analysts alike etc etc… I would imagine a fundamental market analyst/strategist role would be much more ideal if you want to have a shot at a seat? Anyways, although the comp is nice I don’t think it’s worth giving up my book. What do you think?

 

Don't think so. These places run on eat what you kill business model. So they try and squeeze every $ out of every trade. Very different from an oil major where you dont fight for the last $. Oil majors work on 80/20 model. However, this can also have an adverse effect where I know some of my counterparties refused to work with some of the trading houses just because they do not want the hassle of arguing on every detail.

 

I ask because someone mentioned on a previous thread about how it's better to work for Vitol/Mercuria than Glencore or Trafi

 

Harder than Trafi or Glencore? That’s a hell of an assertion, care to explain Monty?

 

Anyone know how much experience you need to get hired as a power or gas trader at Vitol/Traf? The recruiter said that they prefer to promote internally and that you would need to work as an analyst for at least 3+ years. Do you also need a track record of 5-10 x VAR in P&L?

 
hippitus

Anyone know how much experience you need to get hired as a power or gas trader at Vitol/Traf? The recruiter said that they prefer to promote internally and that you would need to work as an analyst for at least 3+ years. Do you also need a track record of 5-10 x VAR in P&L?

Vitol has a more focused biz in power and nat gas ran by the ex citi head... so they prob take more younger folks.. Traf is more hit or miss.. they are in and out of those two products so depends on the year - mostly senior folks are getting those jobs at traf

 

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