Oil International Trading Course

Learn to use trading and hedging to profit from, and protect against, oil market movements. Setting the scene for oil trading, this training course examines markets, pricing and products to provide participants with a thorough overview of the sector. This course will explore mechanisms and tools for both physical and financial oil trading allowing unparalleled access to the world of trading, its role within the oil industry and its importance in the success of oil companies.

What You Will Learn?

In this ”Oil International Trading Course” participants will leave this course with a thorough understanding of the workings of crude oil markets and the range of contracts, tools and techniques available to traders.

Enhance your knowledge in the following key areas:
Supply and demand: fundamentals and implications
Crude evaluation and selection
Physical markets, pricing & price exposure
An introduction to brent
Oil trading and jargon
Hedging instruments: forward & futures
Oil refining
Swaps
International product trade flows and transport
Trading: options and risk management strategies
Dated Brent and the 21 Day BFO market & CFD’s
Market reporting and price assessment
ICE
Management issues Featuring: An electronic refining & trading simulation – put into practice what you have learnt from the course by competing against the other delegates in this real life electronic trading game
Agenda
Day 1&2: Crude Oil and Physical Trading
History of Oil and Oil Trading

How oil trading has developed over the last 100 years.
The growth and decline of the role of major oil companies.
OPEC its history and influence over world oil markets
The role of traders, speculators, banks, hedge funds and algorithmic trading.
Physical Crude Oil

Crude oil classification, important characteristics, and assays
Different types of crude oil production and the associated costs
The Growth of North American Shale and Oil Sands Crude Supply
Global Crude Oil Supply and Demand and Current Market Influences

Crude oil fundamentals and implications
Oil Reserves and Production
The future of the oil price in world markets
What are the drivers for crude oil supply and demand?
Crude Oil Pricing Methodologies and Benchmarks

Physical crude oil trading and pricing mechanisms
Introduction to price exposure and positions
The role of benchmarks in crude oil pricing
Brent crude oil as a benchmark and its evolution
Dated Brent
The Role of Price Reporting Agencies
Doing a Deal

Trading Terminology
A physical trading deal life cycle
The Art of Negotiation
What is crude oil worth?

Gross Product Worth Exercise.
Day 3&4: The Financial Markets
Derivative Trading instruments

Forwards
Futures Trading
Futures Clearing
Hedging and Speculative Trading
Forward Curves
Flat Price Trading
Day 3Trading Simulation:
trading an oil-based crude futures contract, a new unique simulation based on real historic events and news feeds where the price path actually reflects participants’ actions.

OTC Derivatives
Swaps
OTC Clearing
Options
Introduction to styles of trading
The Psychology of Trading

The “Financialisation of Energy Markets
Theories of market behaviour: Efficient markets vs. Adaptive Market Hypothesis
How we make decisions
Overview of Behavioural and Cognitive Bias
Risk Aversion
Overconfidence
Persuasion and hindsight bias
Information bias
Groupthink
A Framework for Understanding Trader Psychology
Day 5&6: Logistics, Arbitrage, Risk Management, Trading Best Practice
Fundamental Analysis
Exposure and Mark to Market
Forward Curves
Physical Oil Contracts
Shipping and Arbitrage
Worldscale
Physical and Financial Arbitrage
Freight Forward market
Trading Strategies
Risk Management
Risk Profile, Risk Appetite
Defining risk management activities and terms
Close out value – liquidity measures in OTC markets
Understanding and interpreting value-at-risk measures, VaR
Stress tests as a complementary tool to VaR and other market risk measures.
Risk Reports – Enhancing exposure reports with risk analysis.
Risk Framework
MIFID2, MAD and other regulatory changes directly effecting oil trading and traders.
Technical Trading
Spreads and Arbitrage Trading
Day 5Simulation
Arbitrage Trading, using crude contracts to simulate arbitrage trade flows. Once again we will be using a simulation based on real historic events and news feeds with where the price path actually reflects participants actions

Days 7 & 8: Refining and Oil Products, Advanced Trading Techniques and Joining the Dots
Oil Refining 101, Refining Economics and Current Oil Refining Issues

How refineries work
Refinery logistical constraints
Oil refining today and the future
Refinery configurations
Variations in Yield: Configuration, Mode, Crude Type
Refining margins & economics
-Refining Linear Programme
The Oil Products Markets

LPG
Gasoline including a blending exercise
Kerosene
Diesel
Fuel Oil
Biofuels

Ethanol and the RINS markets
Biodiesel and the Vegetable Oils Markets.
Petrochemicals

The dual role of naphtha
Steam Cracking and the global plastics industry
Emissions and Carbon Markets

Energy Fundamentals
Joining the Dots – how other energy and commodity markets interact with the oil market.
Introduction to styles of trading
Spreads and Cracks Trading, relative value trading
Day 9
Products and cracks trading – using crude and products contracts to simulate crack trading in the US and Europe. Once again, we will be using a simulation based on real historic events and news feeds where the price path reflects participants actions. This is a complex simulation which allows participants to use all the skills they have learnt during the four days of training.

Day 9 workshop

Who should attend:
This ”Oil International Trading Course” will be beneficial to:

Traders
Refiners
Sales & marketing
Account managers
Economists
Analysts
Risk managers
Operations managers