Crude Trading

Read the news, follow the market and try to develop some views and be able to speak somewhat intelligently about them. That's about as much if not more than anyone could expect of you ahead of time.

oil - think marco natty - think marco/micro power - think micro

I agree with monty, read the news, global events (Iranian Elections, Supply/Demand), if you really want to get into depth(although i doubt youll be expected to know it), figure out how it works, spot, futures, Brent vs WTI, Crack Spread (3 barrels of crude = 2 barrels of gas, 1 barrel of heating oil)

all about knowledge on the futures...combined with major global events, both macro/micro analysis, etc.

You'll live and die by the API report each week. It also pays if your firm has people on the inside at the various countries' oil platforms to let you know who is cheating on their output quotas prior to the release of the API report.

I can't tell you how many times a few well-placed bribes translated into big dollars when I was trading crude.

The WSO Guide to Understanding TARP

The numbers to look at are not API but the DOE numbers. Granted it has only been a while since API is released seperately from DOE numbers, but still some in the industry still view DOE as the authoritative ones. That said the rough correlation is still decent.

What you need to prepare beforehand depends very much on what shop you are going to - mainly paper or physical? On the crude desk i would suggest you read platts methodology and specs, that would help.

Read Platts.com everyday, learn the PADD's, learn all the different types of crude, learn global trade flows, sweet vs. sour, heavy vs. light, major suppliers and consumers, the monthly fund roll, contango vs. backwardated markets, refineries, ships, pipelines, and everything everyone else has mentioned above. If you can, get a hold of Notes at the Margin by Phil Verleger.