Commodities - is trading any more enjoyable than ops/scheduling ?
So we pretty much all agree that scheduling is not the most fun job in the world
- Putting out fires around the clock
- Having to do mind numbing administrative work
- Working with pretty lazy railroads/marine companies/etc that don't have a vested interest in helping you out
Is it actually better if/when you get to a trading level?
Trading physical can involve a lot of assuaging counterparties while those fires are being put out, or telling new ops people how to put those fires out. If you don't enjoy it at all not sure you will like trading.
Railroads tend to be exceptionally unhelpful but you are the customer of the logistics providers. Offering value as a trader is an order of magnitude harder.
There is some S&D work, but mostly a lot of talking to people, trying to get things done, whether they be bangers or just something to stop losing money.
Yeah railroads know they got you by the balls and don’t give a fuck. I remember I interned for one and I actually got an interview from a biodiesel trading company since I had apparently been more helpful than any of the full time ops folks at the railroad.
That's fucking gold. I remember we had the UP completely misroute one of our railcars to the wrong coast and they hadn't even apologized or anything. The rep was just like "okay, we'll see if we can divert it before it gets to Tacoma. Expect an additional 1-2 weeks in transit before it reaches its destination."
Call me a cynic but I’m not sure there’s anything harder than working with railroads. Railroad employees are somehow more useless and unbearable than DMV employees. Don’t worry if you hate dealing with them, nobody likes dealing with them. Being a trader is way better than being a logistician. You’ll always be putting out fires but putting together trades is a a lot of fun too
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How long have you been doing this? Maybe if you are at a super-structured place you don't see that but you in theory progress to being the decision maker on that kind of stuff. The top ops people where I am have a better handle on the costs than the traders.
Ten years ago vast majority of top trader came from scheduling/risk roles. Due to technology, new regulations and so on overtime the development of talent pipeline has totally changed. This is why you even saw the Trafigura of the worlds making "Trader Trainee Programs". So there is lots of people stuck in sr ops roles now who are really good at the mundane job they do but that is all they asked for. Now take that and make 100x and you get the sr railroads folks who give zero effs, pipelines folks aint that different. You gotta remember some of these railroads/pipe dudes been doing the same gig day-in-day-out for 15 years or so, what you consider a fire or crazy annoying shit is a regular day to them and they could give zero effs they more focused on whats out on netflix.
As to how you grow from a good scheduler to wannabe trader. I guess the question is do you think you are a bad arse scheduler yet? Are you the one the trader comes to when something needs to get done? Take a step back for a bit and do not worry what decision the trader made, think "is this knowledge I have, knowledge no one else will have which could help me solve a contract, find multiple options, can duplicate my skills to other products/markets..". If you are a bad arse already...as said need to know more about your environment. The key in GoodBread's response there "better handle on costs" not better handle on the P&L side.
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I worked in ops for 2 years and it was some of the most fun i had in my career..... the work is the work but i learned a ton and was sitting on a desk.... however if i did it for 5-10 years.. i could want to kill myself
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