Power Trading Career Advice - After intradray, what to do?
hello everyone;
I just started working at a swiss utility company in the intraday power desk, I like it so far, but I feel people do not want to get stuck in intraday. Therefore, would you have any advice for my power trading career? Should I move up the curve as soon as possible, I am a bit lost on what direction to take to be honest, so any advice is welcome. I have the impression that people move to longer term, then move to hedge funds, but as it is very niche, there isn't a lot of data points to consider. thanks!
Based on the most helpful WSO content, here are some key pieces of advice for advancing your power trading career:
Focus on Learning FTRs:
Gain Experience:
Networking:
Consider Moving Up the Curve:
Explore Hedge Funds:
Stay Informed:
Seek Mentorship:
By following these steps, you can strategically advance your career in power trading and explore new opportunities in the field.
Sources: energy trader, do I move?, Q&A: ex-bank trader now running crypto hedge fund. questions?, Advice On a Career, Trader + Career Advice = Next Job, Advice: Carreer steps for trading?????
Since you just started recently, my advice would be to focus 100% on the job you have and don't worry about your next move just yet. I have seen many people coming to intraday and all the time just thinking about getting out and not really learning anything. Needless to say, many of them did not make it very far.
In context of European power, intraday is a great place to learn about the real fundamentals that drive the market. If you can think about how those fundamentals apply to spot market (i.e. day ahead), it will help you if/when decide to move to the curve trading, as in the end, all futures settle on those exact prices. Intraday is not the most glamorous market, but similar to doing ops in physical shops, I believe it provides a good foundational knowledge that you will really start to appreciate later in your career.
Also - try to see what part of the job you actually enjoy before focusing on next career step. Just because some other people follow the path intraday - short term - curve - HF doesn't mean you have to. Consider your trading style (once you develop it - it takes time) and how it fits within the various products and company risk culture. You can have very rewarding career path in various trading organisations, not just HF.
That makes sense, thanks! I was just stressed about career progression, I don't why, certainly, unfounded bias, but that intraday is kinda the easy way of entering trading but without progression possibilities.
It is certainly true that intraday is relatively easy to get into, but that does not mean it is a dead end. The people with good skills and attributes get noticed and it is a good feeder into other desks.
Not everyone will make it, of course, but just within my network I know people who started on intraday power and several years later are curve traders on power/gas/carbon, algo traders, quants, or fundamental analysts in trading houses or hedge funds. And many who simply like the intraday market, developed into good traders and are able to earn nice living doing it.
So try to enjoy it, learn as much as you can, and if you are a good performer, you will not have any problem pivoting to another role down the line.
What exactly do you mean by intraday and why is it a problem? If by intraday you mean day trading, I really don’t understand the problem. This is what all of the top market makers do in the world.
Intraday refers to the time period of the product so it's trading the power prices of that day or hour, depending on the product.
From a product standpoint, power is nothing like equities.
Yeah in ID trading, products are traded hourly (ie buy/sell power in Denmark for Hour 13-14 later today. You get in and out 1 hour before the product delivery).
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