Trading, Business & Finance
#8
Six Things Commodity Desks Need to Know This Week
Your Wednesday briefing on trading technology, markets, risk and regulation, in 5 minutes. Edition #8 of The Trading Narrative.
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Archive
Every narrative we've ever published, searchable.
Essay series
Trading Operations3 essays
A running series on the operational backbone of commodity trading: freight, demurrage, market structure, and the data discipline that separates good desks from great ones.
Read the seriesThe Trading Professional6 essays
A six-part series on building a durable career in commodity trading: future-proofing your skills in an AI-first market, moving from trader to desk head, navigating ETRM vendors, reading the room, and building the reputation and judgment that compound over decades.
Read the series45 essays found
Anish PujariSep 23, 2026 14 min readTrading, Business & Finance
#7
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Six Things Commodity Desks Need to Know This Week
Your Wednesday briefing on trading technology, markets, risk and regulation, in 5 minutes. Edition #6 of The Trading Narrative.
Anish PujariSep 16, 2026 14 min readTrading, Business & Finance
#6
Six Things Commodity Desks Need to Know This Week
Hormuz risk is now priced into everything from jet fuel to Chicago wheat, and the CTRM market just got measured.
Anish PujariSep 8, 2026 14 min readDelivery & Systems
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What an ETRM Implementation Really Costs
The licence is the smallest number in the deal. A line-by-line breakdown of what Endur, Allegro, and RightAngle programmes actually cost once you count integration, data, people, and the upgrade treadmill, from someone who has signed the change orders.
Anish PujariSep 7, 2026 6 min readDelivery & Systems
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Endur vs Allegro vs RightAngle: An Implementer's Honest Comparison
All three ETRMs now live under one owner, and every RFP still treats them as rivals. After a decade of implementations, here is how Endur, Allegro, and RightAngle actually compare where it matters: commodity fit, compliance, AI, upgrade pain, and the total cost nobody puts on the first slide.
Anish PujariSep 7, 2026 7 min readTrading, Business & Finance
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Nine Decisions
A copper cargo is priced eight times before anyone looks at a screen. Here is the lifecycle of a concentrate parcel, and why the assay lab decides more of the P&L than the trading desk.
Anish PujariSep 7, 2026 8 min readTrading, Business & Finance
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One Unit of Electricity. Two Countries. Two Completely Different Machines Behind the Price.
A kilowatt-hour is identical physics in London and Mumbai. The price behind it is not. One system routes gas cargo risk through a quarterly cap. The other buries it in slabs, wheeling charges, and a fuel adjustment line most people never read. Who actually carries the commodity risk in each, and what a single delayed LNG cargo does to both.
Anish PujariSep 4, 2026 8 min readTrading, Business & Finance
Basis Risk in Commodity Hedging: The Risk Your Hedge Does Not Cover
You hedged, prices moved your way, and you still lost money. That is basis risk. The three kinds every desk carries, how they bite, and what managing them actually looks like.
Anish PujariSep 3, 2026 4 min readTrading, Business & Finance
Contango vs Backwardation: What the Curve Is Actually Telling You
The shape of the forward curve is the market's most honest sentence. What contango and backwardation really mean, how carry trades work, and the roll cost that quietly eats positions.
Anish PujariSep 3, 2026 4 min readTrading, Business & Finance
What Is a Netback? Netback vs Netforward, Explained for Commodity Desks
Netbacks decide where a cargo goes. Here is how desks calculate them, how netforwards differ, and why the arb window your screen shows is rarely the one you can actually capture.
Anish PujariSep 3, 2026 4 min readTrading, Business & Finance
#5
Five Things Commodity Desks Need to Know This Week
Your Wednesday briefing on trading technology, markets, risk and regulation, in 5 minutes. Edition #5 of The Trading Narrative.
Anish PujariSep 2, 2026 14 min readDelivery & Systems
Why Most ETRM Implementations Fail in the First 90 Days
The system does not crash. The business quietly works around it. Why the first 90 days decide an implementation's fate and what the firms that get it right do differently.
Anish PujariAug 27, 2026 7 min readTrading, Business & Finance
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Hormuz Rewrites the Freight Book: What It Means for LNG and Oil Markets
A fifth of the world's oil passes through 33 kilometres of water. Why this episode is different, what LNG desks are navigating, and what the freight market is pricing.
Anish PujariAug 27, 2026 6 min readTrading, Business & Finance
Copper Prints a Record: What Commodity Desks Need to Watch
A record copper price is a data point. The supply pipeline, the energy transition bid, the China variable, and what commodity desks should actually watch.
Anish PujariAug 27, 2026 6 min readTech & AI
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AI in Trading Ops: What's Real and What's Hype in 2026
Some of what vendors sell is transformative, some is a thin wrapper with a new label. What is actually working on commodity desks in 2026 and what is not.
Anish PujariAug 27, 2026 5 min readDelivery & Systems
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The Skills Commodity Desks Are Quietly Paying a Premium For Right Now
Not exotic credentials: the translation layer, data fluency, regulatory literacy, implementation experience, and the ability to operate in ambiguity.
Anish PujariAug 27, 2026 7 min readPersonal Growth
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How to Read a Room at a Commodity Firm: Culture, Hierarchy, and the Unwritten Rules
The org chart tells you who reports to whom. It does not tell you how decisions get made. Mapping the informal hierarchy and the unwritten rules of a commodity firm.
Anish PujariAug 27, 2026 6 min readPersonal Growth
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Building a Reputation in a Relationship-Driven Industry
In commodity markets your reputation is not a by-product of your career, it is the career. The foundations, the network, and the case for publishing what you know.
Anish PujariAug 27, 2026 5 min readDelivery & Systems
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What ETRM Vendors Won't Tell You, and What That Means for Your Career
The gap between what was sold and what gets delivered is where careers are made and lost. The questions to ask before, during, and after an ETRM implementation.
Anish PujariAug 27, 2026 5 min readPersonal Growth
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How to Move from Trader to Desk Head: What Actually Changes
The transition from trader to desk head is not a promotion, it is a role change. What to let go of, what to build, and how to survive the first six months.
Anish PujariAug 27, 2026 5 min readPersonal Growth
Future-Proofing Your Career in an AI-First Commodity Market
The work that is disappearing was never really yours. What to learn, what cannot be automated, and how to position for the next role in an AI-first commodity market.
Anish PujariAug 27, 2026 4 min readTrading, Business & Finance
#4
Hormuz Rewrites the Freight Book, Copper Prints a Record, and AI Learns to Keep an Audit Trail
Hormuz rewrites the freight book, copper prints a record, ComTech cuts the CTRM forecast, agentic AI arrives with an audit trail, and REMIT II turns enforcement. Edition #4 of The Trading Narrative, in 5 minutes.
Anish PujariAug 26, 2026 10 min readTrading, Business & Finance
#3
Hormuz Stays Shut, OPEC+ Runs Out of Barrels, and the CFTC Questions the Trading Day
Your Wednesday briefing on trading technology, markets, risk and regulation, in 5 minutes. Edition #3 of The Trading Narrative.
Anish PujariAug 18, 2026 10 min readTrading, Business & Finance
What Does TC/RC Mean in Metals Trading? Treatment and Refining Charges Explained
TC/RC stands for treatment and refining charges: the fees a smelter charges a miner to convert concentrate into refined metal. Why the benchmark moves, what negative TC/RCs mean, and why trading systems get the sign flip wrong.
Anish PujariAug 14, 2026 3 min readTrading, Business & Finance
What Is Laytime in Shipping? The Clock That Decides Demurrage
Laytime is the amount of time a charterparty allows for loading or discharging cargo before demurrage starts to accrue. How the clock starts, what pauses it, and why the wording of a laytime clause decides more P&L than most desks realise.
Anish PujariAug 14, 2026 3 min readTrading, Business & Finance
What Is Demurrage vs Detention? A Plain-English Guide for Commodity Traders
Demurrage is charged when cargo occupies a vessel or terminal beyond the agreed free time; detention is charged when equipment is held outside the terminal past its return date. What each one costs, why the invoices are so often wrong, and how desks reduce both.
Anish PujariAug 14, 2026 3 min readTrading, Business & Finance
ETRM vs CTRM: What's the Difference, and Which One Do You Actually Need?
ETRM software manages energy trading across power, gas, and oil, while CTRM covers the full physical commodity lifecycle including metals, agriculture, and freight. A plain-English comparison from twelve years of delivering both, with a practical checklist for choosing.
Anish PujariAug 14, 2026 4 min readTech & AI
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The AI Infrastructure Gold Rush: Who Actually Wins
Everyone is chasing model headlines, but the durable profits are accruing to a quieter layer of the stack. Here's how to read the AI value chain like an operator.
Anish PujariAug 11, 2026 2 min readTech & AI
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Why Great Products Die in Distribution
The graveyard of startups is full of superior products that lost to inferior ones with better go-to-market. A field guide to the distribution advantages that actually compound.
Anish PujariAug 11, 2026 2 min readTech & AI
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The Solo Operator Economy: One-Person Businesses at Scale
Software leverage, global payments, and AI tooling have made the one-person, seven-figure business a repeatable playbook rather than a lottery ticket. Here's the anatomy of the model.
Anish PujariAug 11, 2026 2 min readTrading, Business & Finance
The Boring Portfolio That Beats Your Broker
Three funds, one rebalancing rule, and the discipline to do nothing. Why the most effective investment strategy fits on an index card, and why almost nobody follows it.
Anish PujariAug 11, 2026 2 min readTrading, Business & Finance
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Reading the Yield Curve Like a Trader, Not a Tourist
The bond market prices in recessions, cuts, and regime shifts long before equity investors notice. A practical guide to extracting signal from rates without a Bloomberg terminal.
Anish PujariAug 11, 2026 3 min readTrading, Business & Finance
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Your First $100k Is the Hardest: A Tactical Map
Charlie Munger was right, the first $100k is a slog governed by savings rate, not returns. A stage-by-stage breakdown of what actually moves the needle at each net worth level.
Anish PujariAug 11, 2026 2 min readPersonal Growth
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The Deep Work Reset: Reclaiming 20 Hours a Week
Attention is the scarcest asset you own, and the modern workplace is engineered to strip-mine it. A practical protocol for rebuilding your capacity for sustained focus.
Anish PujariAug 11, 2026 2 min readPersonal Growth
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Habits That Survive Contact With Real Life
Most habit systems are designed for people with perfect calendars and infinite motivation. Here's the engineering approach for the rest of us, built around failure, not around streaks.
Anish PujariAug 11, 2026 2 min readPersonal Growth
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The Case for a Personal Annual Report
Companies review performance quarterly; most humans never do. How a two-hour year-end ritual, metrics, narrative, and one honest page, compounds into a deliberately designed life.
Anish PujariAug 11, 2026 2 min readPersonal Growth
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Slow Travel: The Month-Long Stay Changes Everything
Ten cities in ten days is sightseeing; one neighborhood for a month is travel. Why the slow travel model is cheaper, deeper, and perfectly suited to the remote-work era.
Anish PujariAug 11, 2026 2 min readPersonal Growth
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The Shoulder Season Playbook: Same Trip, Half the Price
The eight-week windows on either side of peak season offer 90% of the experience at 50-60% of the cost, with a fraction of the crowds. A destination-by-destination timing guide.
Anish PujariAug 11, 2026 2 min readPersonal Growth
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Working From Anywhere: A Field-Tested Remote Setup
Three years and 14 countries of working remotely, distilled: the gear that earns its weight, the routines that protect your job, and the mistakes that almost cost me both.
Anish PujariAug 11, 2026 3 min readTrading, Business & Finance
#2
Oil's Sharp Slide, OPEC+ Completes the Rollback, and Smelters Paying Miners
Your Wednesday briefing on trading technology, markets, risk and regulation, in 5 minutes. Edition #2 of The Trading Narrative.
Anish PujariAug 10, 2026 7 min readDelivery & Systems
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Delivering a Power Trading Desk: System Compliance, Lifecycle Design, and Why Agile/SAFe Changes the Economics
Compliance is not a phase you add at the end, it is a property of every design decision from sprint one. What twelve years of ETRM delivery teaches about building the systems behind a power desk.
Anish PujariAug 8, 2026 21 min readPersonal Growth
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170 Kilometres, One Green Enfield, and a Lesson in Strategic Momentum
What a group cruiser ride taught me about pacing, partnership, and the leadership principles we forget at our desks.
Anish PujariAug 7, 2026 4 min readTrading, Business & Finance
The Shipping Industry Is Sitting on a $15 Billion Problem. And Nobody Is Talking About It Honestly.
Demurrage is not an operational inconvenience, it is a systemic failure of data. The industry loses up to $15 billion a year to a problem that lives in inboxes and spreadsheets.
Anish PujariAug 7, 2026 7 min readTech & AI
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Freight Management and Tracking Visibility: How Digital Platforms and AI Are Rewriting the Rules of Commodity Logistics
Why $15 billion in annual demurrage is a data problem, and how AIS, AI, and integrated CTRM are finally solving it.
Anish PujariAug 7, 2026 8 min readTrading, Business & Finance
#1
Five Things Commodity Desks Need to Know This Week
Your Wednesday briefing on trading technology, markets, risk and regulation, in 5 minutes. Edition #1 of The Trading Narrative.
Anish PujariAug 7, 2026 3 min read