The CTRM Blog

Word on the street is that the OLF acquisition of Solarc has now closed…

UPDATE:

New York – December 01, 2011 – OpenLink Financial, LLC (OpenLink), a leading provider of energy, commodities, trading, and risk management (E/CTRM) solutions, which support the entire transaction lifecycle, has completed the deal to acquire SolArc, a vanguard in commodity management solutions for companies operating across the commodity supply chain, with a particular strength in physical bulk commodities.

Since its introduction, we’ve seen the iPad find some utility on and around trading floors – not necessarily as a trading device but more of a supporting technology; most commonly as a tool for managing email, calendar and some web browsing while moving around the office.  With the advent of security tools such as those from Good Technology, corporate IT groups have been more willing to allow such devices to connect to their networks.  Though they haven’t really changed the way business operates in CTRM arena, their usage around trading floor has become somewhat common.

I had the chance to visit with the University of Houston’s Energy Trading Systems class (aka “MIS 4397 Energy Trading Systems”) a couple of weeks ago.  I wanted to thank Ed Bell, the head instructor for the class and the man whose vision lead to its creation, for the invitation to visit with his students again this semester.  I always enjoy meeting the students and am continually impressed with their knowledge of a very complex industry and their insightful questions.  I also wanted to thank Robert Casey, Associate Dean for the C. T. Bauer College of Business for his participation in the conversation with the class and his gift to me of a Bauer College medallion.

A couple of notes regarding the video -

1) Apparently Gary had created a video blog posting about a year ago or so, but I’ve seen it only on YouTube, not on this blog site.

2) I say in the blog that we are using HD video.  We are indeed capturing the video in HD; unfortunately though, do to some software limitations, its not posted in HD…yet.

Some of you may be wondering what happened to Gary? (many of you may not be too!). I thought I’d post a quick note here just to let you all know I’ve been a bit challenged recently. Early last month there was a death in my family that took me away from the job for a while and this month I have had some health issues and will be gone a couple of weeks for post operative recuperation. Please bear with me a bit as I go through a challenging period.

Many Thanks,