Physical Trading - Metals with illiquid futures or no futures

I’m a college student who has always been interested in the physical commodities trade, however, metals trading, especially ones with illiquid or no futures (sone of these examples have liquid futures but most don’t). I was wondering if anyone had insight in any of these products?

  • Rare earths
  • Precious metals (diamonds, platinum, palladium, silver specifically)
  • Lithium and Cobalt
  • Scrap metals

  • just wondering about these in general. Who are the big players? I know Gerald Group and Traxys are big metal traders. Also wondering, who deals with scrap trading (if any) or diamonds, haven’t been able to find much on those. Also wondering if anyone could break down a trade of these products, such as the logistics that go into the trade. I know we have some metals guys in here so any insight would be appreciated!

Thanks!

7 Comments
 

De Beers and Alrosa are the biggest commercial operators in the diamond trading business. Dan Gertler is a really interesting player as well - Bloomberg put together a great profile of him back in 2012 or 2013

 
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