Swathi K Nair

"Non-speculative" is one of those phrases a company can print on a homepage without anyone checking whether it means anything. So before treating it as a credential, it is worth knowing what it actually commits a trading house to, and what it costs them to honour it. Because the difference between a house that speculates and one that does not is not a matter of tone. It is the difference between a counterparty whose ability to pay you depends on the market, and one whose ability to pay you...

There is a lazy version of this story that credits Dubai's commodity boom to tax. It is the first thing people reach for, and it is the least interesting reason. If a zero rate were all it took, a dozen jurisdictions would have replicated Dubai by now. None have. The real reason is geographic and structural, and any business choosing where to base a trading operation should understand it, because picking the wrong location does not just cost a little margin, it cuts you off from the flow of...

Most people who type "commodity trading" into a search bar are picturing the wrong thing. They imagine a screen full of red and green numbers, a trader shorting copper futures, a position that exists only as a contract and never as a physical thing. That picture is real, but it is a different business from the one that moves the metal, the fuel and the fertiliser the world actually runs on. If you are a producer, a buyer or a financier deciding who to trust with a cargo, confusing the two is...