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Latest Blog

Reducing complexity via targeted solutions – Drillinginfo’s Curvebuilder Lite

7 August 2018 | Gary Vasey | Commodity Trading, Risk Management, Vendor news & updates

Recently, an email crossed my desk from Drillinginfo. The content was a two-page data sheet regarding a product... continue reading

The Emergence of the Mega Vendor?

6 August 2018 | Gary Vasey and Patrick Reames | CTRMCenter News, Industry News, Opinion, Vendor news & updates

Over the last 25 years or so, the talk around the virtual ComTech water cooler will occasionally turn to the topic of “which vendor or vendors, if any,... continue reading

Aspect provides a client briefing post ION acquisition

2 August 2018 | Patrick Reames and Gary Vasey | Opinion, Vendor news & updates

Earlier this year, ION sent shock waves through the E/CTRM community as it announced the acquisition of both Aspect Enterprise Solutions and then... continue reading

Cloud and Data

1 August 2018 | Gary Vasey | CTRMCenter News, Industry News, Opinion

Today, we issued our new report – Disruptive Technologies in Commodity Trading (sponsored by FIS). Based around a survey we conducted, the findings really do seem to resonate with the general feedback we have been getting about... continue reading

Latest News

European intraday power trading: clearer and simpler with ITA

20 August 2018 | Vendor News

Aachen (Germany), August 20, 2018 – As the intraday activities of German trading floors often limited themselves to EPEX SPOT SE, the XBID... continue reading

Top oil hedge funds suffer big losses after July price plunge: sources

17 August 2018 | Commodity Prices, Energy

NEW YORK (Reuters) by Devika Krishna Kumar – Two of the world’s largest energy-focused hedge funds, Andurand Capital and BBL Commodities, suffered double-digit percentage... continue reading

Fuel markets confirm global growth slowdown: Kemp

16 August 2018 | Commodity Prices, Energy

LONDON (Reuters) by John Kemp – If the global economy starts to grow more slowly, the impact will show up first in the price of refined fuels such... continue reading

New fuel rules push shipowners to go green with LNG

15 August 2018 | Energy, Industry-related, Regulations

LONDON (Reuters) by Jonathan Saul & Nina Chestney – Tough new rules on marine fuel are forcing shipowners to explore liquefied natural gas... continue reading

Videos

An Interview with Aleksandar Cvetkovic, Brady plc

In this edition of Conversations with Leaders in CTRM Technology, Gary Vasey visits with Mr. Aleksandar (Sasha) Cvetkovic, software engineering manager of Brady plc. Mr Cvetkovic discusses tech trends impacting CTRM solutions, the potential impact of blockchain on CTRM software and Brady’s approach to incorporating and addressing the challenges of disruptive technologies.

Blog

Reducing complexity via targeted solutions – Drillinginfo’s Curvebuilder Lite

7 August 2018 | Gary Vasey | Commodity Trading, Risk Management, Vendor news & updates

Recently, an email crossed my desk from Drillinginfo. The content was a two-page data sheet regarding a product called CurveBuilder Lite. Now, price curves and handling price data has always been of paramount importance in trading and is often an area that is more cumbersome and unwieldy than it needs to be in terms of the tools available across a broad range of different platforms. Of course, these days, price data is just an aspect of the broader data management challenge in which more and more data of varying types (structured and unstructured) is available and which, if unlocked, can afford traders and risk managers with significant insight into markets, yet it remains the key... continue reading

The Emergence of the Mega Vendor?

6 August 2018 | Gary Vasey and Patrick Reames | CTRMCenter News, Industry News, Opinion, Vendor news & updates

Over the last 25 years or so, the talk around the virtual ComTech water cooler will occasionally turn to the topic of “which vendor or vendors, if any, will emerge as the big fish in the ETRM/CTRM pond?” Many years ago, we saw Caminus making moves in that direction via a string of acquisitions of various competing products, only to ultimately be acquired itself by Sungard, who was then positioned to virtually own the market…but, that never happened. The difficulties of acquiring so many overlapping products and trying to make coherent sense of it all was simply too much for the company, and a not insignificant number of customers of the various acquired products. Unable to consolidate the various competing products to gain operational efficiencies and present a coherent product message to their client base, Sungard eventually... continue reading

Aspect provides a client briefing post ION acquisition

Published 2 August 2018

Earlier this year, ION sent shock waves through the E/CTRM community as it announced the acquisition of both... continue reading

Cloud and Data

Published 1 August 2018

Today, we issued our new report – Disruptive Technologies in Commodity Trading (sponsored by FIS). Based around a survey we... continue reading

Big Shift in Skills Demand Reflects Impact of Disruptive Technologies

Published 27 July 2018

As an analyst following the market, any data point is good, but... continue reading

Automated Gas Trading

Published 26 July 2018

We occasionally miss an announcement it is true and one we did miss was on the 28th June from Powernext.... continue reading

SAP’s Commodity Management Forum

Published 18 July 2018

A couple of weeks ago, I attended the SAP Commodity Management Forum in Heidelberg, Germany with around 70... continue reading

An Ever Changing Landscape?

Published 18 July 2018

Having tracked vendors in the E/CTRM segment for almost 20-years now, it appears to be an ever shifting landscape of... continue reading

Vendor Perceptions

Published 17 July 2018

As we enter what are often the slower summer months, now may be the time to take an opportunity to... continue reading

Crude Pressure?

Published 12 July 2018

The world has adequate supplies of crude oil despite OPEC’s recent assessment that market for crude will be undersupplied by... continue reading

News

European intraday power trading: clearer and simpler with ITA

20 August 2018 | Vendor News

Aachen (Germany), August 20, 2018 – As the intraday activities of German trading floors often limited themselves to EPEX SPOT SE, the XBID trading system has given traders a simple option for short-term, international power trading since June 12. The standard exchange solution is sufficient, but “nothing is easier than ITA from ProCom,” says Detlev Hardt, Portfolio Manager at Stadtwerke Düsseldorf AG. ITA is an intraday trading solution from ProCom GmbH that includes a market monitor, a portfolio manager, and a trading assistant for direct trades on the exchange. At Stadtwerke Düsseldorf, ITA has been in use for about one and a half years. The latest version with XBID functionality was installed in mid-June. It not only shows order books and options for all exchanges, but also... continue reading

Top oil hedge funds suffer big losses after July price plunge: sources

17 August 2018 | Commodity Prices, Energy

NEW YORK (Reuters) by Devika Krishna Kumar – Two of the world’s largest energy-focused hedge funds, Andurand Capital and BBL Commodities, suffered double-digit percentage losses in July as oil prices plunged by the most in two years, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday. BBL Commodities Value Fund, run by former Goldman Sachs oil trader Jonathan Goldberg, lost 14.2 percent in July, a person close to the firm said, speaking on condition of anonymity since the information is not public. Andurand Capital’s Commodities Fund lost 15.2 percent in July, bringing the fund’s performance to a 5 percent loss for the year through July 31, according to data compiled by HSBC. Pierre Andurand, who runs... continue reading

Fuel markets confirm global growth slowdown: Kemp

Published 16 August 2018

LONDON (Reuters) by John Kemp – If the global economy starts to grow more slowly, the impact will... continue reading

New fuel rules push shipowners to go green with LNG

Published 15 August 2018

LONDON (Reuters) by Jonathan Saul & Nina Chestney – Tough new rules on marine fuel are forcing shipowners... continue reading

Thoma Bravo to Acquire Quorum Software

Published 14 August 2018

SAN FRANCISCO & HOUSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Thoma Bravo, LLC, a leading private equity investment firm, today announced that it has... continue reading

China unloads U.S. soybean cargo amid public worries about cost of trade war

Published 13 August 2018

BEIJING (Reuters) – A vessel carrying U.S. soybeans was unloading its cargo... continue reading

A cargo ship carrying $20 million of soybeans has been drifting off the coast of China for a month — and it shows the real-world effects of the trade war

Published 10 August 2018

BusinessInsider – A cargo ship carrying a $20 million worth of soybeans... continue reading

Event announcement: ProCom Energy Market Conference on November 13th to 15th, 2018 in Berlin

Published 10 August 2018

The Future Rhythm of Energy Supply Aachen (Germany), August 10th, 2018 –... continue reading

After soybeans, EU touts U.S. LNG imports to woo Trump on trade

Published 9 August 2018

BRUSSELS (Reuters) by Alissa de Carbonnel – The European Union said it was delivering on a deal with... continue reading

Chinese exports accelerate even as Trump escalates trade war

Published 8 August 2018

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s exports surged more than expected in July despite U.S. duties and its closely watched... continue reading

Interview Corner

ETRM and PPAs – The View from Down Under

Published 7 August 2018

An interview with Mr. Shaun Ankers, CEO, Energy One ComTech Advisory: Can you give us an update on Energy One? What key initiatives are you... continue reading

FIS Looks to Leverage Products into Energy & Commodities

Published 26 June 2018

ComTech Advisory: FIS Energy & Commodities is just a part of a larger group of products and business units offering trading and risk products that... continue reading

Brady’s Product Strategy and Direction – Interview with Ms. Libby Koehn, Chief Product Office, Brady PLC

Published 3 April 2018

Ms. Libby Koehn joined Brady PLC recently as Chief Product Officer. We asked her about Brady’s strategy, products and views on market developments. ComTech Advisory:... continue reading

An Interview with Rich Jefferson, Commodities COO at Beacon

Published 27 March 2018

Comtech recently had the opportunity to visit with Mr. Rich Jefferson, Commodities COO at Beacon to get his thoughts about Beacon Growing Rapidly and Finding... continue reading

FIS Gear Up to Launch Multiple Product Strategy into Commodities

Published 20 February 2018

Commodity Technology Advisory asks Dr. Markus Seiser, COO, FIS Energy, about FIS’s strategy and plans for Energy & Commodities ComTech Advisory: FIS now markets its... continue reading

Interview with Metafused

Published 1 February 2018

ComTech Advisory: What is Metafused and what does it offer? Madhuban Kumar: Metafused’s platform provides automated AI predictions for financial services and increases their efficiencies... continue reading

Capco’s Energy Practice post-FIS – A Conversation with the Leadership Team

Published 4 December 2017

FIS announced their intention to spin-off the company’s Capco consulting business in May of this year. With the transaction completed in August, we recently visited... continue reading

Commodity Markets – A Headhunter’s View

Published 8 November 2017

ComTechAdvisory: Given all of the turmoil in commodity markets this last year or so, how has the job market been impacted? James Richmond: The markets... continue reading