The Group

One curious question, did you work at Enron back in high days of energy trading ? The entire company, scandal, attitude of the place has always fascinated me. I always wanted to know an Enronian.

me too. I was in college when enron went down.. was a freshman 2001

Loved the "guys with spikes" metaphor for a trader and attitude.

i worked with a few of the people on the doc

Of course monty can give you the better answer, but at the desks I know we have a lot of (industrial) engineers, the head of trading is a physics phd and the analysts, who often do the real quantitive stuff, are math, meterology and the like. But that is also mainly power, which due to it's nature is I guess a lot more complicated (look at how they calculate spark spread options...). But it's not that their knowledge in how to design an engine properly or adiabatic processes in thermodynamics is helping them in particular, it's the think fast, structural problem solving skill that qualifies them i guess, so everything a finance/math person can do just as well. In the middle office however, having particular science knowledge is a must often times, but you will find lot's of math people there as well. You need particular people to know how much wind equals how much wind power and at what point turbines shut down automatically if the wind is too strong. Depending on the salary of course the only answer is : If you make the company lot's of cash, you get lot's of cash, if you lose, you get kicked out. What your major was doesn't matter then anymore. I think the biggest lack of knowledge everybody has in the beginning, because there is little specific theoretical energy trading education because these markets are very unique compared to other parts of trading. A stock market essentially is the same everywhere in nature, whereas for natural gas or even more power a lot comes down to the individual grid and pipeline system, regulation, monopolies. So you as a in college finance person, just like an engineer or whoever, would have more problems due to the fact that you have close to no knowledge of the real business (especially physical trading for utl's) from your academic studies and they would have to train you long before they can let you trade anything. All the graduate energy trading positions I know start with a 18 month training period (of course, you have to have interns as well to get in). Interning is the key, if you have intern experience, most of it is offered in the middle office, a glowing letter of reference from your supervisor will get jumpstarted.

The products you named are mainly it, i would include naphta, kerosene and the other crude products.I don't know however why you include solar and wind ? It's not really a product, more a form of production of power.

on my desk of 18

17 - finance/accounting 1- economics

You working at a power desk ? I know you work at a Utl. Besides utls, are there other institutions that trade power in the US ?

yes.yes.not true