My name is Matt Smith and I am a financial market junkie. Having left London and the warm bosom of investment management some 1,312 days ago, all could have gone very wrong. However, I have fallen into the arms of another – the world of energy commodities. So henceforth, my reasons for their stardom is tenfold:
1. Markets are all interlinked. Although some energy commodities may spend some time way out in left field, led by their own own fundamentals (step up to the plate, US natural gas), energy commodities take their lead at various times from other commodities, or other asset classes. So the more you know about general markets, the more you can apply that knowledge to the movement in specific commodities.
2. The word fungible. Commodities have fungibility, which means their units can be substituted for another – they are interchangeable, like a dime. Hence why a pipeline attack in Nigeria or geopolitical tension in the Middle East matters to the price of your gas at the local gas station. It is also a fantastic word.
3. How commodities latch onto other commodities at various times. For example, European power markets pick 
and choose which price driver to follow, seemingly like picking a jelly belly from a bag (exaggeration for embellishment). At various times, power is led by coal, natural gas, oil or carbon permits, or varying combinations of these four. It keeps you on your toes.
- 4. The global reach of commodities. Trying to get your head around a domestic commodity like US natural gas is hard enough, let alone trying to determine how rampant Chinese oil demand weighs in with weak US oil refinery margins to influence UK Brent crude pricing. It surely can never be wholly mastered, but it sure is fun trying to decipher all these contrasting factors, from Corpus Christi to China, via Chiswell Street.
- 5. While leading participants in other markets try to hide their misdemeanors through a charade of smoke and mirrors (step up, Lehman Brothers and your Repo 105’s), the largest and most influential participant in the crude complex (Opec) continue to defy their own mandates (official quotas), while fully aware they will be called out on such dissention on a monthly basis. Refreshing.
6. How can you tire of a commodity such as US natural gas, when despite having all the sophisticated financial modeling and valuation tools in the world, prices remain at the mercy of the gods with hurricanes, heat, storms, and snow?
7. Technological advancement. Energy markets are constantly evolving through technological breakthroughs, and this will only continue through developments in such areas as LNG, smart grids, biofuels and green energy.
8. Forward curves. Not only do you have the ability to analyze commodities on the cash market or the front month contract, but you get to analyze the movements of the whole forward curve, going out for years to come. They are like a 3-D version of equities. And the forward curve is just as important as the prompt (or more) to energy risk management.
9. 
How markets in completely different geographical areas influence each other. Case in point, UK and US prompt natural gas prices have recently converged, due to their increased competition for LNG supplies. Fungibility + transportation links = an ever shrinking world.
10. Commodity markets are like equity markets are like bond markets are like currency markets. No matter how much you analyze a market, you will never master it. But we keep trying our darndest. And that’s why they rock.
‘A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks round for a coffin’ – HL Mencken
of tools for assessing the potential evolution and volatility of a market – from macroeconomic models and 
