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power
 

Why bother being good?

anonymousman's picture
IB
 
Points)
 on 3/23/13 at 10:30am
WHY-BOTHER.png

WHY BOTHER BEING GOOD?

Everyday the newspaper tells the same depressing stories. Youth crime, corporate tax-avoidance, dishonest lawyers, selfish bankers, mass genocide, needless wars, countless violent acts of extreme hatred, rape, oppression and corruption, right down to the cheating footballer’s wife, as told in the lying gossip magazine.

I don’t read the tabloids too much. I’ve come to realise that when people hear over and over, day after day, about bad things, it seems that they start to think that they are justified in being a little less noble themselves. ‘That’s just the world we live in’ – ‘everyone’s taking drugs’, ‘everyone cheats’, ‘everyone gossips’. The media makes celebrities of the worst of us, and subsequently, over time, people feel excused to drift into moral grey areas, asking ‘Why bother being good when everyone else is bad?’. Well if we can’t answer that question, we’re heading for a very dark world indeed, and so that’s the question I want to answer in this article. Why bother being good?

n.a

Junior12's picture
(Chimp, 6
 
Points)
 on 3/14/13 at 1:03am

n.a

Sooner or Later

fr's picture
ST
(Chimp, 8
 
Points)
 on 2/15/13 at 12:50am

Hello,

I find myself in a bit of a bind and I am hopeful that folks here can offer me some good advice.

I am 26 years old and currently work at one of the top power merchant companies. I used to be an analyst in Origination, but now, after some restructuring within the company, I find myself working in an increasingly quantitative role where I am starting to pick up programming skills and gain greater understanding of derivatives and logic underlying their pricing and their use for hedging/speculation. However, after 2 years of doing this job I find my opportunities for advancement and growth diminishing in an increasingly bureaucratized environment and frankly am looking for a way out.

xxxx

sillymonkey123's picture
(Monkey, 56
 
Points)
 on 1/18/13 at 9:20pm

xx

Trading Electric Power

sillymonkey123's picture
(Monkey, 56
 
Points)
 on 1/17/13 at 2:24pm
Electricity Prices are so Awkward!!

What are some ways to trade electricity? I know most of the power instruments are OTC but the ICE also has these contracts tradable on their exchange, for example I heard about they "BalMal" contracts that can allow traders to speculate on electricity. What are some common type of power instruments to trade power? Are the instruments homogeneous (eg. in oil their are many different types of crude oil types, bonnie light, WTI, WCS, LLS, MARS, Brent, etc)? Is it the same in the power markets? I know contract delivery is day-ahead and is contracts are broken out by maturity (1M,2M, etc) and Peak vs NonPeak Contracts.

Power Trading

sillymonkey123's picture
(Monkey, 56
 
Points)
 on 1/17/13 at 12:23am

Can an individual on their own trade electricity futures (such as on the ICE)? Or do you need to have the backing of an institution such as a utility/bank/hedge fund to be able to trade such a commodity? Most of these institutions are large players in the marketing and distribution of electricity. They have weather models, meteorologists, access to the grids, etc to influence electricity prices. However, can a small trader/individual decide if they wanted to trade power, as a stock/bond trade would, successfully do it on their own?

Power Trading -- Electricity Trading

sillymonkey123's picture
(Monkey, 56
 
Points)
 on 1/15/13 at 9:57pm

Can anyone tell me the state of power trading now? Is it in ascent or decline? I know before Enron, it really took off but it caught heat after they fell. What is the state of the market now?

Are there more jobs being created in power market prop shops? Are firms/banks cutting bank on power trading and therefore less jobs?

Are more hedge funds engaged in trading electricity? I know DC energy is a well known hedge fund trading on the PJM.

Can working in the prop desk at a Utility/Generation firm leave you with great exit ops? To other hedge funds or the prop desks at IB's?

Can working in the prop desk at a Utility/Generation firm allow you to switch to other commodities ? NatGas/Crude?

Power Pose

John Daggett's picture
(Orangutan, 329
 
Points)
 on 12/17/12 at 6:52pm
Uncle Sam

I want a power pose for my LinkedIn pic. I want to look powerful, prestigious, and poised without looking pompous. Any ideas?

Power/Gas Scheduling Analyst

hungryhobo's picture
(Baboon, 100
 
Points)
 on 11/1/12 at 1:43pm

Currently in my final year of College and have strong internships in front office trading roles, but I'm wondering what's the best way to get into a power or gas firm as a scheduler. A lot of these positions require experience, but are there scheduling roles available for those straight out of undergrad? I've been networking and have been able to pass my resume to a few firms, but no luck at the banks given my non-target background. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Rank the three for me: Fame, Power, Wealth

帝都大蜜's picture
(Baboon, 104
 
Points)
 on 7/19/12 at 2:43pm

by its importance to you, please.

Mine first: Fame > Power > Wealth

Life after Investment Banking, part 2

anonymousman's picture
IB
 
Points)
 on 4/26/12 at 8:24am

I just wanted to reply to a few of the comments on my first post... http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/life-after-i...

1. I don't know what else I could do
The picture on this post is an entry I wrote in my journal one hour after walking of the door of the bank.

Life after Investment Banking

anonymousman's picture
IB
 
Points)
 on 9/9/12 at 12:00pm
Stephen Ridley plays at a school

Like a majority of people who are on this website, I used to come on here and write bullshit about a life partly my own, partly fantasy. I'm now going to uncloak the anonymous man and tell you my story.

My name is Stephen Ridley. I graduated from a top tier British University with a First Class Honours Degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics in 2010 and went straight into IBD at a top tier European Investment Bank, after interning there in 2009. I worked in the top team (on a revenue basis) for 16 months, before quitting in October 2011. I want to tell you about that experience, and about what has happened since then, about how I left the green to chase my dream. This will be blunt and honest. I do not mean to offend, quite the opposite, I hope to inspire! Again, this isn't an attack on those who choose to be bankers, it's just me sharing my experience together with the lessons I've learnt, and hopefully it speaks to a few people. If you look at the picture above you'll see a picture of what I do now. It's a little different from where I was 6 months ago!

Banking is fucking brutal. I knew this after my internship, but I didn't care. I wanted money. I wanted respect. I wanted to be a somebody in the eyes of myself and others. But most of all, I wanted money. Why? Because money is freedom. Money means I can wear what I want, live where I want, go where I want, eat what I want, be who I want. Money would make me happy. Right? Well... not exactly I'm afraid. In fact, money didn't seem to make any of the bankers happy. Not one person in the roughly 200 I got to know in banking were happy. Yet all earned multiples of the national average salary.

Power generation asset valuation (Power and utilities)

caspermonday's picture
(Chimp, 13
 
Points)
 on 9/13/11 at 2:46pm

Hello,

I am now preparing for an interview with Power group. I found quite a bit of material on how to value an oil & gas company but struggling with power asset generation valuation. Could anyone explain me how to value power and utilities companies and how valuation of such companies is different? If you could share a link to an explanation, that would be great too.

Thank you!

50 most influential people in finance

dwight schrute's picture
(Gorilla, 676
 
Points)
 on 9/10/11 at 8:49pm

50 most influential people
agree or disagree?
I for one don't understand why the governor of the mexican central bank is ranked 2nd.

Are Bankers Destroying Capitalism?

Midas Mulligan Magoo's picture
 
Points)
 on 7/6/11 at 12:00pm
pig

Are bankers destroying capitalism? It was certainly the populist pulpit preaching point of the moment a few years ago, but I didn’t buy it. After all, my sworn enemy had always been the inept regulatory structure; unwilling to put the foot down on the bad kids in the class.

Frankly, why would they? Those bad kids were making money for everyone, but at what cost?. Before we rehashing the age old argument let’s look over the following statement and think about who is responsible for what…and to what degree?

50 Most valuable players on wall street

Brady4MVP's picture
HF
(Neanderthal, 3,161
 
Points)
 on 5/26/11 at 11:33am

Interesting ranking from one of my favorite business/finance sites, businessinsider. Overall, pretty solid ranking of the big players in finance today.

http://www.businessinsider.com/clusterstock50

Citi: Power versus Energy?

West Coast rainmaker's picture
ER
(Neanderthal, 2,128
 
Points)
 on 4/4/11 at 11:05pm

Most banks have a single power and energy group, but I noticed Citi has split theirs. What is the difference? And what would the exit opps from each be, assuming NYC?

This seems like a rather odd organizational structure. Is this due to their recent acquisition of most of UBS's energy team? I see some older threads treating them as one group.

List of Largest Power Trading Shops

Race's picture
(Baboon, 168
 
Points)
 on 4/4/11 at 10:34am

For the aspiring power/energy traders:
Platts Energy recently released a list of the largest wholesale power traders for 2010.

Rank Name - 2010 (MWH)
1 MORGAN STANLEY CAPITAL GROUP - 255,281,926
2 CONSTELLATION ENERGY COMMODITIES & AFFILIATES - 214,480,998
3 SHELL ENERGY NORTH AMERICA - 233,709,713
4 NEXTERA ENERGY RESOURCES - 196,277,976
5 FIRSTENERGY SOLUTIONS & AFFILIATES - 185,492,221
6 EXELON GENERATION & AFFILIATES - 194,712,211
7 JP MORGAN CHASE BANK AFFILIATES - 112,956,627
8 PPL ENERGYPLUS & AFFILIATES - 140,755,684
9 CALPINE AFFILIATES - 145,071,363
10 EDISON MISSION GROUP - 101,022,209
11 CITIGROUP ENERGY - 101,638,160
12 AMEREN OPERATING COMPANIES - 111,632,456
13 DOMINION RESOURCES - 105,067,226
14 RBS SEMPRA COMMODITIES - 84,836,287

How Much Money Do You Need?

Midas Mulligan Magoo's picture
 
Points)
 on 3/2/11 at 12:25pm
dol

Need is a difficult concept to define. Is there an adequate measure?

Perhaps not for the masses, but it should be easier on Wall Street... right?

I find that my financial needs have changed over the years in direct correlation to my perspective on life. Ideas I once swore on like they were the Bible, are now an afterthought...a fleeting mirage in my memory.

There have been times when I made tons of money and felt broke. There have been times where I literally was broke and felt myself the richest man in the land.

This is why I am not posing the question:

How much money do you want?

I'm far more intrigued by what it is that motivates you...than how you quantify that motivation.

Barcap Nat Res and Power

joebreezy's picture
(Chimp, 7
 
Points)
 on 2/27/11 at 12:44am

for the NY office which group would be better? i know nat res is arguably their top group and top on the street, but it seems like nat res does a lot (if not all) execution in houston for energy purposes. maybe power would be better in NY if that is the case

also how are the lev fin and sponsors groups in terms of modeling and exit opportunities? sounds like the best modeling experience is in the industry groups - correct me if i'm wrong

don't be a douche and say "search for other threads" - the point is to facilitate conversation

What happened in ERCOT?

Race's picture
(Baboon, 168
 
Points)
 on 2/3/11 at 9:07am

What happened in ERCOT yesterday? I am hearing some hubs were $500/MWh, the asset management guys are parting like it is 1999 right now.

This is why you need capacity in merchant markets; no one will build or finance peakers without capacity payments. If it is the weather at least the generators will repay the ISO for not being on call, thus they have an incentive to have the latest technology. Peakers in the PJME & Nepool deal with cold weather all the time.

Ohh, Texas will you ever learn? So much for perfect merchant markets

Energy Markets

SouthernFried's picture
ST
(Monkey, 34
 
Points)
 on 1/14/11 at 6:21am
OIL-GAS8.jpg

Following Midas's review of commodities over the past week or I figured now would be a good time to visit the idea of a more in depth discussion of the energy markets. 10 days ago I posted my first topic about my thoughts on why natural gas was overbought (February contract specifically) in the energy trading group on wso but I am hoping to foster more discussion in the general forum.

Commodities Class: Electricity

Midas Mulligan Magoo's picture
 
Points)
 on 1/7/11 at 11:58am
ert

Ever since the Chilean born, Friedman bred "Chicago Boys" came on to the global economic scene in the 1970's the electricity markets have grown in depth and structure.

With Thatcher's UK government privatizations of the electricity supply industry and the U.S's movements in the same direction over the last two decades, the transfer has been complete.

What was once a worldwide state-to-state government monopoly (regardless of economic system) had become a functional market

Topic #6

Electricity (power/energy)

Commodities Class: Natural Gas

Midas Mulligan Magoo's picture
 
Points)
 on 1/5/11 at 12:04pm
nattie

The idea for this mini series about commodities and energy came from the forthcoming Energy Rodeo, so perhaps it is time to discuss the uncrowned king of American power...

Topic #4

Natural Gas

What's that I say? Natural Gas more important than oil?

Obviously not the case...not yet, at least...

Ever since T. Boone Pickens came out from the environmentalist closet, markets have changed their tune to natural gas.

What was once looked at as merely a potential backup resource has sprung into the limelight of trading and power over the past decade.

Money and Power

Im with Busey's picture
IB
(Baboon, 171
 
Points)
 on 12/9/10 at 11:31am

Does money make someone powerful? Or does power make someone rich?

Energy Trading

PortugueseBreakfast's picture
CO
(Chimp, 5
 
Points)
 on 11/16/10 at 9:35pm

I have an interview tomorrow with a boutique energy trading shop as an entry level trader. I'm coming from consulting and have very little idea of what to expect from this process. Any insight on what types of questions may be asked, best practices for this type of interview, etc. would be appreciated.

The Strategic Outlook: Fear and Uncertainty Have Paths of Their Own

oilprice's picture
EN
(Gorilla, 579
 
Points)
 on 9/20/10 at 5:31pm

Fear and uncertainty create patterns, paths of their own. And societies are again in a mosaic of uncertainty — and resultant fear — over the fate and durability of the social and security frameworks once taken for granted. Mass reaction to these fears will trigger transformative change. But there will be opportunities to seize and command change.

Almost all societies in the world have gone beyond the stage where they expect stability and linear progressions of the past to long endure. Some societies — almost en bloc — anticipate the end of their security; others anticipate the end of their suffering. Few expect insulation from change. That change, however, need not be entirely inscrutable if we look at global patterns and at historical human behaviour.