I was a physical and paper oil trader at two large trading shops AMA

I’m a former physical and paper oil trader with experience at two prominent trading firms, and I wanted to share my journey in another AMA, building on my previous one in the commodities subreddit.

After graduating with a degree in Chemistry, I joined a renowned global private trading company through their graduate program in Geneva. During my time there, I completed three rotations in operations, risk management, and trade finance, focusing on various products including Crude, Condensate, Fuel Oil, Gasoline, Naphtha, and Biodiesel.

Following the graduate program, I transitioned into a commercial operator role, where I focused on monetizing physical optionality for the gasoline book—essentially optimizing gasoline blending Economics. I spent a year in that position before moving to a junior trader role at a company mainly focused on paper trading.

As a junior trader on the fuel oil desk, I was responsible for overseeing the trade capture system, supporting analysts with supply and demand modeling, and managing the forward curve while quoting prices for internal bunker hedging. Through this experience, I gained skills in market-making and arbitraging the curve, eventually transitioning to trading physical cargoes in Rotterdam, before returning to a paper-focused role that leveraged analytics for relative value trades.

I’m here to answer any questions you might have about the oil trading industry, how to break into the field, or the path to becoming a trader. Feel free to ask!