What to expect as a commodity trading intern.
Hey guys, just accepted an offer for a commodity summer internship, and the possibility of it becoming a year round internship. It is for a "commodity trading shop," now I know nothing about the product they trade; fruit purees, vegetables, honey. So I'm assuming it will be a lot of studying the products, however they have a research internship, and this is a trading role, so I'm not sure how much it will differentiate considering they will definitely want me to learn the product, but still be on the floor, how will this work, and what kind of work/projects will I be on?
Thanks in advance guys.
I'm kind of in the same role as you. Except my official title is Trade Assistant.
You'll most likely be doing research on the products. To be honest, I don't even know how you'll be doing that on those products as they're not traded on the major exchanges (if at all)
You'll most likely be doing a lot of the emails for the traders. Sending comfirmations and stuff like that. Making sure that their systems are working and getting stuff fixed if it goes down.
I knew absolutely nothing about commodities, let alone the grains and softs markets that I now cover, but once you start doing some research reports and doing presentations you'll get the hang of it.
You might even be requested to take the series 3 exam. It's not hard. I studied for a couple of weeks and passed it.
You're gonna be the desk's bitch doing bitch work. End of story.
I wonder why banks just don't re-name the position "bitch" instead of "intern" - that would be way more appropriate and honest.
I've never heard of derivatives for any of those and didn't know there was much of a market for intermediaries in that space. My guess is you'll shadow traders and help with some admin/logistics stuff to set up trades as you get up to speed on who producers and consumers are.
This is completely variable on the firm, size, trading strategies and commercial interest. You could be helping to book trades, checking BOLs for logistics, interfacing (or being) the back office, assisting with risk reports, working commercial projects and anything far between. Read anything you can find on your products and start the internship ready to absorb information.
It is a huge blessing if you get to start with the physical side of commodities. Try to learn as much as you possibly can because it helps tremendously if you get to plod along that path. Also don't expect or think too much as an intern. Just be open-minded and work really, really hard.
Thanks LCYM, yeah, the more I read, the more I see people going to the physical side as an 'exit-op' per-se. It was probably used out of term, but it would be good to get into a career that I would be able/want to stay in for a significant amount of time vs. something like IB.
IB and Trading are completely different animals and is akin to a Surgeon vs a Cardiologist--sure they are both housed in a hospital but they have completely different skill sets, and are not interchangeable.
Focus on learning your product. There is a common misconception that one has to get into a "hot" product to make money (ask the crude by rail guys how they are doing right now) but the niche products fly under the radar, and can have good upside.
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