Q&A: Commodity Energy Merchant

They called me the Commodity Merchant, I prefer "relationship manager". It not just buy low, sell high. It's managing the relationships, structuring the logistics assets and trades from the origin to the destination. We are a regular shipper on the Colonial Pipeline Line 2, Off-Exchange EFP cash settlement & buying from USGC, ship it with CPL and resell it to Greensboro, I also do rail scheduling balance +50 contracts a month. We are not aggressive like some other co, we are not too conservative [like say... Chevron]. The plain truth. Interesting world, but has been tough since 2 years compare to what it used to be. -The industry has fundamentally changed. -The trading community is a little world, a lot of effort to build and maintaining trust this will never change. -End-users know the value of the commodity to the nearest cent per barrel. -and... profit margins are sub 1% unless you are allowed to take risks. -You deal with 7-8 lawyers, compliance officers for deals, it's an excessive amount of lost time, costs and opportunities. Job Market It's a bizarre HR market. I have 5 years of experience; the typical employee in trading has 15-20 years of experience and brings the book of customers (very much like in IB I presume). **It's S/D of the skills.** *where D equals P/L and determines the S.* 3-4 years ago people who had, up until now, dull careers in LPG have suddenly been hired at offer they couldn't refused by traders who just wanted stars quickly... but there is flip side to it. If I may advise a under looked path it would be to invest time to connect with** the producers of something**, before you get into the interviews, it would place your resume above the pile !