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Detailed Glossary
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Scheduling | ||
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Often used as a term for the Operational activities involved in gas and power Detail Short term position needs to be nominated or notified to the respective system and market operators:
This set of activities is often collectively referred to as Scheduling The schedule of a trade describes the delivery profile (that will need to be nominated) | ||
Settlement | ||
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The Business Process or Capability covering the payments relating to trading activities. It includes agreeing payments, making them, and ensuring that payments are received at the correct times Detail Settlement includes: We also referred to the concept of financial and physical settlement of trades
We need to be careful to recognize the legal definition of settlement of a physical trade:
Most other parts of energy trading businesses identify the term settlement with cash settlement (or payment) | ||
Shape | ||
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Shape is a term, mainly used in Power Trading to describe a non-continuous delivery over a delivery period For example a UK power trade may have a delivery period of a month and have peak shape, which specifies that the power will be delivered over a time period of 07:00 - 23:00 each day of the Month Detail Typical shapes include
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Speculative Trading | ||
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Speculative trading, also known as proprietary or spec. trading, is the trading of commodities with the intent of making a profit with no intent to make or take delivery of those commodities Detail Spec. traders take forward positions, either short or long with the view to closing out those positions at a later date, prior to delivery Closing out the open position involves trading to flatten the net position, eventually (but before delivery) to zero | ||
Spot | ||
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A spot trade in general refers to a trade with immediate delivery. In energy trading terms it usually refers to a trade with delivery on the day it is executed (within day) or for the following day (day ahead) Detail There is usually high volume trading in spots, particularly for power and gas, as speculative traders try and close out their positions as delivery times approach, and asset-backed traders try to balance, and financially optimize their positions. A large proportion of spots are traded on Exchanges and through Brokers Spot trades are settled physically, and even if executed on an Exchange are often settled by invoice and payment within a day or two of delivery | ||
Spread | ||
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A spread is a difference in price, or value, of two similar but different underliers An Energy Spread trade s a type of trade between two floating prices on similar but not identical energy underliers Detail Spread trades are usually financially settled Different types of Energy Spread are classified by the difference in the underliers:
Many commodity spreads are associated with the cost of generating electricity, so they involve electricity as one commodity, the others may be:
Another group of commodity spreads are associated with the cost of refining, so they involve crude oil as one commodity, the others being refined products such as gasoline. These are known as crack spreads Spread is also used to describe the difference in prices between locations, times, commodities
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Storage | ||
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A type of commodity, which although it may be applied to any physical commodity, usually describes the ability to store natural gas in its gaseous state Storage facilities usually consist of natural structures (depleted gas fields for example) that are attached to the gas pipeline network Details Storage may be bought from the Storage operators in auctions or traded Storage allows the option to inject gas into storage, or release gas from storage The commercial use of storage is generally to allow gas to be transferred into Storage (injected) in Summer months when the prices are low, and released (withdrawn) in the peak Winter months when gas prices are high Storage behaves somewhat like an option on a physically settled time spread | ||
Swap | ||
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An Energy Swap is generally a swap of two different prices on an identical, or similar, Energy underlier Detail While financial market swaps may involve swapping almost any cash flow for any other cash flow, an Energy Swap involves the swap of two different prices on an identical, or similar energy product or underlier. The two types of Energy Swap are:
By definition, Energy Swaps are always financially settled Energy swaps may be traded OTC or on an Exchange An Energy Swap is very similar to a a financially settled Futures or Forward Contract Exchange traded swaps are generally settled through non-daily margining - and therefore have credit risk Financially settled futures, like all futures, are settled through daily margining - and have minimal credit risk | ||
Swing Contract | ||
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Also known as a swing option, a swing contract is a type of contract that allows the buyer the option, but not the obligation, to take periodic deliveries of a product at a volume nominated by them between a minimum and a maximum volume at an agreed price Detail Swing contracts ate typically used in long term supply contracts of gas, oil and power They are frequently combined with a take or pay clause, which specifies that a minimum amount of product must be taken over a set of long periods e.g. A swing contract may specify that a daily volume between 10 and 100 units may be taken each day A take or pay clause may specify that a minimum of 365 * 15 units may be taken over the entire year Daily nominations of swing contracts are usually made by a particular time on the previous day, and may be transmitted electronically Valuation of swing contracts is extremely complex, because of the daily optionality, and particularly if there is a take or pay clause as the overall delivery is constrained Swing contracts may be short or long term (up to twenty-five years). Typically the price is either renegotiated periodically, or indexed to an index, or a basket of indexes | ||