September 2nd, 2010 
Gary Vasey CommoditiesNow magazine is busy with its all new Commodity Business Awards program and will utilize CommodityPoint research reports in judging two of its awards categories – CTRM Software and Data Management.
The Commodity Business Awards (CBAs) reward talent and excellence throughout the commodity markets … whether that’s in the physical and/or financial arena, in trading, risk management, structuring, finance, research, advisory, logistics, legal, or specialist technology.
August 26th, 2010 Gary Vasey I came across this recently and I just couldn’t resist posting it here….. Sheer genius.
Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Detroit. She realizes that virtually all of her customers are unemployed alcoholics and, as such, can no longer afford to patronize her bar. To solve this problem, she comes up with new marketing plan that allows her customers to drink now, but pay later.
She keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers loans).
July 13th, 2010 Gary Vasey Several months ago at E-World in Essen I was introduced to Mr. Rajeev Bhatt of eOpt Solutions. eOpt are based in Germany and describe themselves as “a unique products and services company, that offers smart solutions in the Energy Trading and Risk Management space.” Founded in late 2008 by a small group of energy industry professionals who had spent several years at the forefront of energy and technology, eOpt saw opportunities to provide specialist software tools and consulting in and around the periphery of traditional CTRM software. By focusing on areas where CTRM software can often be weak, Mr. Bhatt was confident that eOpt had found a good business opportunity.
Today I was updated by Mr. Bhatt on the company’s progress to date. The company is 5 strong and is in the process of adding a 6th person with a target of doubling its staffing by the end of 2011. It has four clients; 1 in the Netherlands and three in Germany and is hoping to add two more over the summer in the UK and Italy. It is focused on the trading side of energy in areas such as forward curves, pricing and risk tools for complex energy portfolios as well as developing bespoke solutions for customers.
June 29th, 2010 Gary Vasey CommodityPoint has issued a new Technical Briefing Note on Risk Optimization highlighting the Hyper Rig Risk Optimiser product. The TBN may be downloaded from the Reports and Articles page of this blog.
In an ideal world, running stochastic risk metrics such as full blown Monte Carlo Value at Risk (VaR), Earnings at Risk (EaR), portfolio stress tests or, other simulations, would be performed both on demand and in real time for complex commodity portfolios. Unfortunately however, this vision has proven to be elusive with most firms resorting to the use of overnight ‘batch’ jobs lasting hours to provide an accurate assessment of the day’s starting position and then utilizing parametric risk metrics during the trading day to approximate changes in position.
Posted in CommodityPoint Research, Risk Management 
Tags: hyper rig, risk optimization, TBN 
No Comments » June 23rd, 2010 Gary Vasey Next week I will be heading back to London to be a panelist at Hyper Rig’s breakfast briefing on Risk Optimization. I will be joined by Richard Jefferson, MD Head Commodities Sales at Deutsche Bank and Michael Coleman founder of Hyper Rig as we discuss the issues facing traders and risk managers.
The breakfast briefing will help attendees discover the latest technological advances to:
June 16th, 2010 Gary Vasey Yesterday I received a press release from Allegro regarding its “go live” at Repower (formerly Räetia Energie), an international energy company based in Switzerland that has implemented Allegro 8 to manage its emissions trading activities, and is extending the implementation to handle its power and natural gas trading. Repower will utilize allegro 8 as a single platform to manage the company’s complex trading operations across multiple commodities, locations, and trading floors throughout Europe. The announcement can be found here.
Late last year, CommodityPoint and Global Change Associates released a report titled Emissions Monitoring & Trading Software sponsored by IHS, Locus Technologies, Navita, Nirvanasoft, SunGard Energy and VisionMonitor. That study found that only 18% of the respondents utilized a commercially provided CTRM solution to handle their emissions trading requirements but that 30% said that they planned to procure emissions trading software in the next 24-months.
May 5th, 2010 Gary Vasey As markets take stock of the Greek bail out plan and weigh the chance that other European Euro Zone nations such as Portugal and Spain, amongst others, may also require bail outs as their credit ratings plummet, the Euro is taking a battering and has slipped below 1.30USD in New York today. The US Dollar, which hasn’t looked such a good investment either in recent months, is now looking like a better bet than the Euro. In reality, I see both currencies as somewhat weak but with the Euro currently looking extremely vulnerable. As the Euro slides, what might the impact be for commodities?
During much of the last 2-years, European consumers have enjoyed some level of protection against rising commodity prices such as crude oil and gasoline – which are priced in US Dollars – because of the Euro. Now, Europeans can expect to start paying higher fuel and other commodity costs on the back of that weaker Euro. Yes, most commodity prices have also weakened considerably since the highs of 2008 but none the less, European commodity prices will be higher all the same and will add to the economic difficulties Europe is still facing. One might also think that, with both the Euro and in reality the USD being unattractive, many investors will seek some safety in commodities thus perhaps moving prices up. Additionally, there ought to be greater FX market activity as commodity buyers and sellers try to hedge out their Euro exposure. Interestingly enough, today both Crude Oil futures and Gold prices are also in decline and commentators attribute that to asset liquidation by funds and others impacted by the growing Euro Zone debt crisis.
ETRM Blog by Patrick Reames AgriMoney.com
