Power and Gas pause for thought

25 November 2005

As the markets start to wind down for Christmas the price stays relatively high. Met forecasts of the coldest winter ever do not help the price fall lower.

Power and Gas prices ended the day slightly down on yesterday. The volume of trading was very small partly due toa party and partly due to the traders not wishing to take exposure which may damage a bonus already in the bag. Many traders are incentivised on their current P&L and this is often marked to market. As a result a non flat position can fluctuate radically in this type of market, and so trading is limited to flattening positions.

Interestingly there was more interest in Summer 06 which has been less volatile, and so risk limits are probably more reasonable. Traders appear somewhat divided on where this market is heading, with an aggressive buy at £39.90 in the morning followed by an aggressive sell in the afternoon at £39.40. This means that the buyer of the first has automatically seen an MtM loss of £44k in half a day. But this is less risky than a Winter 06 trade which can move by up to £180k in a day (£2 movement on a standard lot size of deal).


Finance  Volatility 

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