Risk management
Credit watch
Risk management and analytics firm RiskMetrics gives this month’s analysis of energy companies’ credit quality using its CreditGrades tool
Margin notes
Brett Humphreys explains how to measure and manage margin risk, an often-overlooked – yet often-significant – risk exposure
Playing a waiting game
With energy – and particularly natural gas – costs on the rise, are end-users finally coming to terms with the importance of hedging or are they still waiting to get burned before they enter the hedging market? Kevin Foster reports
Energy clearing – solutions for a changing trading environment
E. Michael Jesch, head of business development at Clearing Bank Hannover, examines the effect of energy market liberalisation, globalisation and recent technological advancement on short- and long-term trading
Blurring the lines
A turf war between Atlanta’s IntercontinentalExchange and the New York Mercantile Exchange reveals a shift in the traditional role of over-the-counter brokers and exchanges, finds Catherine Lacoursière
Making the grade
As credit risk is now a major concern in the energy industry, EPRM takes a look at CreditGrades, a risk measurement tool from risk analytics firm RiskMetrics
US pipelines follow the market
Todd Shipman of credit rating firm Standard & Poor’s finds that pipeline companies in the US will face more market risk than regulatory risk in the coming year
Enough’s enough
Brett Humphreys takes the guesswork out of determining how many simulations are needed to calculate value-at-risk
Coal on the rocks
Faced with liquidity problems, falling volumes and uncertainty over the accuracy of price data, coal trading has had many of the same difficulties as the natural gas and power sectors over the past year. How can it get back on its feet, asks Kevin Foster
A clear market leader
How will SunGard’s acquisition of rival vendor Caminus change the market for energy risk management software? Kevin Foster reports
Exchanging blows
Conflict in the US and growth in Europe marked another turbulent year for energy exchanges. Kevin Foster casts an eye back over 2002
Getting stressed
To understand how much value can be lost from a position in the energy markets, we need to use measures other than value-at-risk. Brett Humphreys discusses methods for creating effective stress tests
Hedging on a jet plane
The past eighteen months has been a critical time for airlines. FAME Information Services looks at how an airline can reduce operating costs by jet fuel hedging
Rising fuel costs, diving profits
Airlines differ on how to manage jet fuel price ‘hyper-volatility’ as option prices point to more turbulence ahead. Catherine Lacoursière reports
Cell mates
Traders love spreadsheets. But complex deals can quickly outgrow a sheet developed on the fly. Since traders won’t abandon their favourite tools, Stuart Cook and Tony Hughes of The Structure Group look at how firms can control their use
The front-month proxy hedge
The front-month proxy hedge is a correlation-based hedge that seeks to neutralise the aggregate sensitivity of a portfolio to a futures curve by converting the individual futures hedges into a single hedge with respect to only the front-month contract…
A new look at credit risk capital
In the second of two articles on Standard & Poor’s refinement of analytical methodology, John Kennedy discusses an updated approach to evaluating credit risk capital
Capturing value from energy supply and trading
Companies that plan to engage in energy trading need to invest in the right personnel, processes and information management tools if they intend to be successful, says David Dunkin, SolArc’s Chief Strategic Executive
Who is left to manage risk?
The exodus of energy trading companies from the market has created a gap in managing risk. David Johnson and Ross Warriner of Protiviti report