Commodities/Energy Trading Internship Rankings
Ranked by comp, quality of training, speed to taking risk, size of risk allocated, and overall prestige (in that order).
Tier 1A (Best HFs): Citadel, Millennium, DE Shaw
Tier 1B (Good HFs): Balyasny, SIG, DRW, Brevan Howard, Squarepoint, Jain Global
Tier 2 (Merchants): Trafigura, Vitol, Mercuria, Glencore, Gunvor
Tier 3A (Hybrids): CCI, Hartree, Engelhart, Freepoint
Tier 3B (Top Physical): BP (RP, NG and Oil), Calpine/EDF (Power)
Tier 3C (Top Banks): Macquarie, GS, Citi, MS, BofA
Tier 4 (Rest of Physical): Shell, Koch, Repsol, Equinor, Exxon, Chevron, Total, Vistra, NRG, Engie, NextEra
Tier 5 (Rest of Banks): JPM, WF, whatever other banks have commods
This whole list is just me spitballing so lmk if you disagree, I tried to rank each tier from best-> worst
I'd rank BP way. way higher. They have a regimented program. The younger people I know that have joined Traf, etc can get stuck in random roles pretty easily. I don't think a merchant is always the best way to start out. This is different than banking.
care to explain why working at a merchant may not be the best starting point?
Not anymore since they've laid everyone off and moved 50% of it offshore.
Are you talking about bp? Hasn’t happened to any trader or analyst I’m aware of. Maybe true if you are talking about random IT consultants
No one who has been around in the industry thinks like this.
No way to say categorically that a pod shop is better than an independent which is better than a bank which is better than a major.
All of them have pros and cons, some are better suited for different stages of a career or different skillsets than others, and there is wide variance in each of those categories.
Prospect here, could you touch on the pros/cons of each and who might be best suited for which role?
For oil, in my opinion
Majors are best for new grads with their large expert network across the barrel and structured programs. Strong preference for BP/Shell as they are more commercial and spec driven. Good for established traders as well who can get paid 7 figs per year (just look at recent lawsuit figures and disclosures of prior payments). Not great if you are stuck in non commercial companies or roles.
Hedge funds are best for seasoned traders who want more flexibility, independence, trade paper, and get potentially higher payouts. If you have a nice nest egg already and want to take a swing for 5 years to get paid 10s of millions on a good year, these are the seats. Though higher risk as not every strategy can work each year.
Vitol/Traf is great for experienced traders who want to trade physical but have less bureaucracy, constraints, and get higher payouts than they would at BP/Shell. They are very unequal places where established high value people can command big sums. Not good for new grads who may get stuck in career support roles.
Not familiar with banks or CCI/Engelhart.
pure commod shops like traf and vitol way better than hfs. Should aim for TDPs as a fresh grad
Opinions on GS?
Top bank
.
I'd have JPM way higher than Citi, which belongs at the bottom. Former JPM, current Citi, did recruitment for both. JPM wins by a long shot.
Citi has equal if not better exits into the HF/merchant space. Have heard JPM commods expansion is slowing while citi is expanding/already has one of the largest phys among banks.
Citi does indeed have a very large commodities operation relative to other banks, especially (I think) in soft agris
Opinions on Koch?
On the oil side they’ve had really good alumni (entire vitol us team) but apparently have struggled for quite some time and shut down liquids trading entirely
^
Macquarie at 3C? lol
Yes they have been one of the top banks in past 10Y (even though I wouldn’t really even compare them to banks bc phys is so large), however they have been declining recently (24’-25’) per bloomberg: “…at the beginning of 2024, O’Kane left to join Mercuria Energy Group, marking one of the most prominent departures amid a string of commodity trader exits. This significantly impacted Macquarie’s oil and gas operations in the U.S.: oil exports were suspended, natural gas trading fell by 19%, and the bank was forced to renegotiate supply contracts with the government worth approximately $600 million…According to sources familiar with discussions regarding individuals who requested anonymity, since early last year, at least 12 traders and related personnel in Houston have left, with significant attrition from the physical oil team…”
does brevan even have a commodities internship, SIG also doesnt
https://careers.sig.com/job/9348/Electricity-Natural-Gas-Analyst-Internship-Summer-2026
Brevan has macro trading internship. i assume commods falls under that
Any thoughts on DV Trading?
Not bad, seems to be a smaller commods group. Saw some guy from sig went there.
This might be the most inaccurate ranking of anything I’ve ever seen
Citadel and, Millennium, and DE Shaw being tier 1 for a fundamental asset? Wtf are you smoking? BP and Shell deserve to be S-Tier minimum on this list. Yes you don't get to trade until you pass the TDP, if you even do, but you literally walk out of the TDP program with a very high chance of getting a trading seat at any other firm. The quant funds will never be able to beat the firms that actually produce and know the supply of commodities cold.
I'm speaking from my time working as Dev on the trading side of BP. They run a clean shop, lots of great people, and the best place to start your career if you want to break into commodities trading.
So if you got a citadel offer vs a BP tdp offer out of undergrad you would take BP? Feel like most would take citadel assuming citadel is where the best at BP/other phys end up after exiting BP due to risk constraints. Essentially I see it as citadel offers higher pay while you are still getting to learn from the best of the best when it comes to phys guys (Assuming you get placed under a good PM).
BP they actually groom you and teach you. Citadel is for you to run your own shop/pod. There is no mentorship, you will get back stabbed, and it's very cut throat because you're running your own book against not only others in the market, but within your own org. Unless you're the luckiest person on the planet, you will not thrive in Citadel early on and I'm convinced very few actually make it from their "graduating classes".
Also Citadel pays insane for market data, but they're not an oil major, and they can only speculate on the nat gas and power markets, as opposed to BP which supplies said markets with the actual product and the best traders in the industry all come from an ops background since again, commodities is a fundamentals shop, fed rates don't effect the current amount that is produced or moved across the globe. Basically, understanding + mastering the supply chain makes you a killer trader who can ignore the noise and know how to trade effectively and manage a profitable book. Vitol is also good since they actually warehouse/store the product. Though Vitol's culture is toxic and I didn't like them when I interviewed with them from the Front Desk developer role.
I think the attractiveness of the hedge funds also depends on what stage you are at and what team you are joining. If you are joining a pod that has a shaky track record right out of school, it could be a significant detriment to your career because you have a 1-2 year non compete even if you are let go, so you can’t get out into the next job smoothly. It’s not like you not liking Bp and so you join up with Trafigura a few months later. And as a junior, you have very little leverage to negotiate any sort of extra bonus to make up for this. The traders have this problem too but they negotiate payment above just salary during these garden leaves. And they are more likely to be poached by someone who can tolerate this. No one is poaching a hedge fund analyst 2 years in with an 18 month non compete.
BP all day
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