CTRM Center - For Everything CTRM / ETRM and More

9 November 2018 | David Calmonson | Opinion

By David Calmonson Over the last couple of years, I’ve been doing quite a bit of work for an Australian software vendor. Until this experience I had thought... continue reading

A Trip to Vienna

8 November 2018 | Gary Vasey | Opinion, Vendor news & updates

Being based out of Brno, Vienna is a stone throw away so I was delighted when UtilityWeek was scheduled to be there. As it happened, the tradeshow/conference also coincided with Visotech’s user meeting and so, I attended... continue reading

Latest News

Tanzanian cashew price hike could lead to global shortage, traders say

16 November 2018 | Ags & Softs, Commodity Prices

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Tanzania’s plan to buy the country’s entire 2018 cashew nut crop could lead to a global shortage, with processors in... continue reading

Comstock Resources Selects InstaNext to Manage Oil & Gas Hedging

15 November 2018 | Vendor News

November 15, 2018 – InstaNext, a premier provider of cloud-hosted commodity trading and risk management solutions, announced today that Comstock Resources has signed... continue reading

U.S. farmers scramble to contain trade-war damage, find new markets

14 November 2018 | Ags & Softs, Commodity Trading, Industry-related

ADDIEVILLE, Ill.(Reuters) by P.J. Huffstutter & Karl Plume – Clouds crowded the Illinois sky as Nick Harre walked away from his combine at... continue reading

Oil slumps 7 percent to one-year low as rout extends to 12 days

13 November 2018 | Commodity Prices, Energy

NEW YORK (Reuters) by David Gaffen – Oil’s slide accelerated on Tuesday, with U.S. futures suffering their steepest one-day loss in more than... continue reading

Videos

CTRMRadio Edition 6 – Disruptive Technologies and Commodity Trading and Risk

Episode 6 of CTRMRadio focuses on exploring the findings of ComTech’s recent Disruptive Technology report (available from CTRMCenter as a free download). Featuring interviews with Dr. Markus Seiser of FIS and Mr. Colin Hartley of DrillingInfo (Datagenic), ComTech explores how cloud, AI, ML and Blockchain may impact the commodity trading and risk management industry.

Blog

Zero UI – Will it be Adopted in CTRM?

16 November 2018 | Gary Vasey | Commodity Trading, Opinion

The recently issued Disruptive Technologies report makes for some interesting reading however, it is also what it doesn’t say that might give pause for further thought. The report found that just around 25% of people responding to the survey thought that virtual or augmented reality would have some form of impact over the next 2-3 years and only 8% saw investment in that area over the same period and I for one, found this somewhat surprising. On the other hand, perhaps in truth, we asked the wrong question? In an era when big data and the use of AI and ML is exploding across the commodities space, what about the ability to visualize data? The man-machine interface? Our interactions with applications are primarily screen and text-based. Most... continue reading

More Application Seen for AI and Blockchain

9 November 2018 | Gary Vasey | Blog, Commodity Trading, Industry News, Opinion, Regulations

On the back of issuing our Disruptive Technologies report and recent CTRMRadio podcast on the same topic, a couple of interesting articles appeared today covering conferences in the FinTech sector. The first, an article by Platts, covering the International Swaps and Derivatives Association Technology Forum 2018 in New York, discusses various speakers talking about AI and Blockchain. The use cases discussed included using AI for price suggestion, spotting market manipulation, smart contracts and so on. Interestingly, speakers and panel members identified a couple of issues around smart contracts. “One challenge is expressing the coded portion in a way that could be read and understood by a judge, Paul Lewis, partner at law firm Linklaters, said. Another challenge associated with using smart contracts in commodity market trading could... continue reading

Blog from down under – A Whole lot Of Rosé

Published 9 November 2018

By David Calmonson Over the last couple of years, I’ve been doing quite a bit of work for... continue reading

A Trip to Vienna

Published 8 November 2018

Being based out of Brno, Vienna is a stone throw away so I was delighted when UtilityWeek was scheduled to... continue reading

New CTRMRadio Podcast

Published 5 November 2018

We have just issued another episode of CTRMRadio available at this site and also over at soundcloud.com. The episode looks... continue reading

Focus Switches to Implementation Time and Costs

Published 29 October 2018

In a post GDPR world, vendor marketing themes and modes have changed as we have commented on before... continue reading

Allegro Targets Metals, Raw Materials and Mining

Published 26 October 2018

A couple of weeks ago, Allegro announced its entry into the metals & mining space. Timed to coincide... continue reading

2018/2019 CTRM Sourcebook Underway

Published 22 October 2018

Just about the most popular report that we produce is the CTRM Sourcebook. Last updated in 2017, we... continue reading

InstaNext is quietly finding solid success

Published 19 October 2018

InstaNext, based in Bentonville Arkansas, may not be a widely-known brand in CTRM/CM, but they have notched a... continue reading

The Results Are In – Which Vendor leads the Industry for E/CTRM?

Published 18 October 2018

Every two years, ComTech issues its vendor perception report. This is based... continue reading

News

Tanzanian cashew price hike could lead to global shortage, traders say

16 November 2018 | Ags & Softs, Commodity Prices

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Tanzania’s plan to buy the country’s entire 2018 cashew nut crop could lead to a global shortage, with processors in Vietnam and India likely to be hit first, traders said. President John Magufuli has ordered a 94 percent increase to cashew nut prices to protect farmers from low prices and told his government to acquire the estimated 220,000 ton crop after private buyers refused to buy at the higher price. Tanzanians would eat the nuts themselves if they could not sell them, Magufuli said, raising concerns that the nation’s most valuable export crop will not reach global markets. If the nuts are not sold to buyers in Vietnam waiting for them, “there... continue reading

Comstock Resources Selects InstaNext to Manage Oil & Gas Hedging

15 November 2018 | Vendor News

November 15, 2018 – InstaNext, a premier provider of cloud-hosted commodity trading and risk management solutions, announced today that Comstock Resources has signed on as InstaNext’s newest E&P customer. Headquartered in Frisco, Texas, Comstock Resources (NYSE: CRK) is engaged in the acquisition, development, production and exploration of oil and natural gas with operations concentrated in Texas and Louisiana. The company has over 800 drilling locations on its Haynesville/Bossier shale acreage, where it estimates to have over 10 Tcf of reserve potential. On August 1, Comstock announced its acquisition of North Louisiana properties from Enduro Resources Partners, which consists of approximately 21,000 gross acres in Louisiana and includes 120 producing natural gas wells. On August 14,... continue reading

U.S. farmers scramble to contain trade-war damage, find new markets

Published 14 November 2018

ADDIEVILLE, Ill.(Reuters) by P.J. Huffstutter & Karl Plume – Clouds crowded the... continue reading

Oil slumps 7 percent to one-year low as rout extends to 12 days

Published 13 November 2018

NEW YORK (Reuters) by David Gaffen – Oil’s slide accelerated on Tuesday, with U.S. futures suffering their steepest... continue reading

In race to fill LNG supply gap, project goalposts have changed

Published 12 November 2018

LONDON (Reuters) by Sabina Zawadzki – The race is on for liquefied natural gas (LNG) producers to build... continue reading

Butterfly effect: Low EU river stirs fuel market 10,000 km away in Singapore

Published 9 November 2018

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Low water levels on the Rhine river have caused... continue reading

Oil prices drop as ‘trifecta of trouble’ may cause glut

Published 8 November 2018

NEW YORK (Reuters) by Jessica Resnick-Ault – Oil prices fell nearly 2 percent on Thursday as investors focused... continue reading

BRAND ENHANCEMENT ALERT: TRADESPARENT ENRICHING THE COMMODITY DATA LANDSCAPE

Published 8 November 2018

8 November 2018 – TRADESPARENT the leading commodity Data and Analytics Solution... continue reading

CubeLogic and FERDEC announce partnership for Transaction Surveillance

Published 7 November 2018

ferdecTS® sophisticated MAR/MAD II/REMIT transaction surveillance capabilities to be fully integrated within... continue reading

European automakers BMW, Volvo to trial new LME steel contracts

Published 6 November 2018

LONDON (Reuters) – European automakers BMW and Volvo plan to experiment with steel contracts to be launched by... continue reading

Interview Corner

Regulatory Compliance TRADESPARENT

Published 17 September 2018

An interview with Mr. Alexander Regnault, Director Operations, TRADESPARENT ComTech Advisory: TRADESPARENT now offers a variety of different solutions from risk management to regulatory compliance... continue reading

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