Commodities: currently 153 jobs.The latest job was posted on 26 Feb 20.

Commodities

Commodities Trading

A commodity is any tradable product and usually refers to agricultural goods such as wheat and cocoa, energy products like coal, natural gas and crude oil, and metals like aluminum and copper.

Commodities trading houses deal in the raw materials themselves, including production, storage and distribution. Investment banks typically get involved in the creation and trading of commodity derivative products, which are financial products structured around these physical goods, such as commodity futures and swaps. These products can enable commodity producers, like cocoa farmers or coal miners, and users of commodities like chocolate manufacturers and power companies to hedge the risk of commodity price movements adversely affecting their profits.

Roles within Commodities

Traders

Commodities traders usually focus on one product type. They buy and sell commodities or commodity derivatives on behalf of their employer, which could be a bank or a commodities trading house. Trading decisions are informed through careful and frequent market analysis, which may be supported by one or more junior analysts.

Sales

Sales positions are common within investment banks, and involve building relationships with clients. This role requires the ability to analyse and understand the market, excellent communication skills and the ability to write and deliver presentations and sales pitches.

Structuring

Structurers are responsible for creating commodity based products to meet a particular client’s needs. An example might be for an airline to hedge the cost of its jet fuel for the next five years, and the structurer might be an employee of an investment bank.. As this often involves bespoke products, the requirements can be highly quantitative , with even junior positions requiring a Master's degree in a maths based subject area.