Asia Centric by Bloomberg Intelligence Inside the High-Stakes World of Commodity Trading
Oct 29, 2025
Giovanni Serio, a 20-year veteran of commodity trading and former head of research at Vitol, dives into the secretive world of trading houses like Vitol and Trafigura. He sheds light on how these firms operate, driven by flexibility and scale. Giovanni highlights the critical role of technology and data analytics in transforming market transparency and discusses how geopolitical events have reshaped trading dynamics. He also explores why oil prices are increasingly influenced by supply rather than demand and the evolving culture within the commodity trading sector.
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Trading As A Spatial, Temporal, Quality Business
- Trading houses buy, sell, store and transform commodities across space, time and quality to profit from relative prices.
- They thrive in both bull and bear markets by optimizing supply chains and logistics efficiency.
Physical Business, Digital Analysis
- Commodity trading remains a physical business requiring storage, blending and shipping infrastructure.
- Data and analytics have grown massively, adding many data scientists and screens to trading desks.
Why Independent Traders Matter
- Independent traders remove conflicts of interest by marketing third-party supply worldwide.
- Their flexibility lets them reroute flows quickly when geopolitics disrupts traditional trade paths.
