Deals Desk Analyst

Analyst - Deals Desk

Main purpose

The Deals Desk in Trafigura is a middle office team providing market and risk analysis globally on a real time basis. Our primary responsibilities revolve around monitoring all elements of the risk and exposure related to our commercial activity and report it directly to the board on a daily basis. Being seated in the middle of a trade floor, we serve in a support role for traders spanning across virtually every market. Commercially, we add value by providing traders with risk assessments and analysis which highlight their exposure, optionality and PnL. These reports are essential to help them make the right commercial decisions and optimize the opportunities their portfolios generate, all the while providing deals desk employees with an unprecedented front office learning experience in the world of trading.

To fully master the role takes years of training as it requires an in-depth knowledge of every element of physical and derivative trading, as well as being able to interpret the impact of operational, financial and political changes on the underlying position and profit. Whilst all responsibilities and accountabilities of the role remain based upon the core principles of risk management, the factors that drive them change on an hour by hour, day by day basis as the company discovers new and innovative ways to generate a wide and truly diversified portfolio

Maintenance and enhancement of core P and L data to increase accuracy and timeliness of the daily trading results.

Be responsible for the production and reporting of daily trading positions and management P&L, production and monitoring of daily trading P&L and volumetric exposure reports, post deal review and system reconciliation. Enter inception PnL for all new trading strategies, and maintain the economics on these strategies from cradle to grave.

Key responsibilities

• Ability to independently justify the economics applied to each trading strategy.
• Apply forward curve on daily basis for physical and derivative markets to current position and to explain the impact on the trading PnL.
• Produce daily commentary for board of directors / traders to explain the change in the trading profit and loss due to market changes/change in estimated / actual economics for each deal.
• Analyse exposure and M2M profit and loss on physical/derivative portfolios.
• Allocate all physical and derivative transactions to correct trading strategy.
• Ensure all market price risk is captured and hedge actions executed.
• Assess implication of changes to future physical deliveries and report and discuss impact of hedge strategy.
• Creation and maintenance of ad-hoc reports to assist in any area of position reporting /structure /hedging (data integrity / trade entry / irregular business structures).
• Full responsibility for integrity of data in trading systems that is used to generate the above items

Required qualifications

Degree holder, preferably with at least 1-2yrs

• Engineers Preferred

• Proficient excel abilities

• Familiar with using multiple systems

• Ability to work in a fast paced high pressure environment

Attributes for success

• Meticulous and innovative
• Market analysis skills
• Strong organisational skills
• Excellent communications

Department overview

The Deals Desk (DD) is a critical commercial and control function within the organisation, responsible for PnL ownership, trade economics, exposure management, and business system integration across the trading lifecycle. The department sits at the intersection of Trading, Operations, Finance, and Accounting, acting as the central hub for deal economics, profit reporting, and risk oversight.

Key Relationships     

• Deals Management
• Physical/Paper Traders
• Operators
• Finance Dept
• Chartering Dept
• Demurrage Dept
• Deals Team