The CTRM Blog

Triple Point announced that Hess Corporation has selected its Commodity XL for Oil(TM) product to manage its supply, trading, risk, and logistics for crude oil and refined products. Meanwhile, Brady also announced that it had signed The Mitsubishi Corporation, Tokyo, in 2009 to extend the use of Brady’s trading and risk technology to include all of the corporation’s global trading of both physical and derivative precious metals. Finally Aspect Enterprise also announced a year of record sales and profits during 2009 mark the start of 2010 – its 10th anniversary year. Among its sales in 2009 was a major contract from a multinational group which chose AES’ AspectETRM solution initially for its petroleum desk in London, then rolled it out in the US and the Far East before adding metals trading at the year end. Other signings included companies in Malaysia, Singapore and Switzerland, together with 4 in the rapidly expanding West African market. There was also significant new business from bunkering companies in Asia and Germany.

Sounding like a character from StarWars, the WOCU is the World Currency Unit, a derivative of the exchange rates of the world’s top 20 economies (as measured by GDP).

The Wocu was apparently conceptualised in 1996, and after much research and discussion over the next decade, whilst the concept was tested for volatility and other characteristics, a detailed plan for the advancement of the Wocu was drawn up; it was introduced in 2009. The Wocu is an apolitical derivative of the exchange rates of the world’s top 20 economies as measured by GDP. The algorithm is weighted in line with these GDPs, resulting in a demonstrably less volatile currency unit. It is re-weighted by the WDX Institute every six months, following the publication by the IMF of its GDP figures. Prices for Wocu currency pairs can be seen on the WDX website, www.wocu.com.

Coming up on quite a busy period here in the Czech Republic. At the end of this week, CommodityPoint will move its office to the prestigious International Business Center in Brno where we will be much better equipped for client visits and the addition of further staff during the year.

International Business Centre - Brno

Then next week I will be flying to London to present at SolArc’s user conference.

This interview is the second in a series of interviews with major consultancies in the Commodities Trading & Risk Management area. I had the opportunity to visit with David Edwards of UK-based Baringa Partners and ask him a few questions about his firm and the commodities trading and risk management industry in Europe.

Dr. Gary Vasey: Tell us something about Baringa Partners? What does the firm focus on and what types of projects do you engage in?

Apparently JP Morgan is in the process of buying much of RBS Sempra here in Europe on the back of a European Commission ruling ordering RBS to divest its holding. JP Morgan said it would purchase RBS Sempra’s global oil unit, its profitable metal trading business and operations in coal, freight and power and gas in Europe and Asia for $1.7billion. RBS Sempra Commodities will retain its US natural gas and power operations.