Coal is under a cloud, but nobody appears to have told commodity traders.

The year will be remembered for the European Parliament's ratification of the Paris climate deal, which commits signatories to shunning coal in favour of cleaner energy. At the same time, trading activity in financial coal has ballooned as hedge funds have flocked to the market, and traditional users of the product have dabbled with new, and potentially risky, trading strategies: some coal producers are said to be