Gary Vasey of CommodityPoint has watched and/or participated in the CTRM software space for the last 19 years.  His research and commentary is always insightful and helps bring clarity to the complex E/CTRM marketplace.  If you aren’t already following his blog you should check it out.  It is a must-read for anyone involved in the commodities business.

In a recent post, The Race for Market Share in CTRM Software: Can Triple Point Catch Openlink?, Gary reports that, “Triple Point, by our estimates, is growing at a faster pace than the overall market. We estimate the market growth rate…

The global financial crisis has sparked a rethinking of the reporting of fair value disclosures and given rise to concern about counterparty credit risk inherent in derivative portfolios. The credit position of an organization and their counterparties is critical to the transparent valuation of earnings and compliance with changing regulatory requirements.

With auditors, shareholders and regulators insisting on transparency, verifiability and validity of accounting figures, getting the credit haircut or credit value adjustment (CVA) wrong, or excluding it from earnings statements, will raise serious concerns.  Organizations cannot afford to ignore this issue, doing so risks the reputation of the…

There has been a lot of discussion recently about how the credit function will undergo revolutionary changes in the next few years.  This highlights what Triple Point has been saying for the last 12 months, “Uncertain regulations in both the US and Europe will significantly increase the cost of trading and require the credit department to take a strategic position in optimizing portfolios.”

Rather than a revolution, we talk about the ‘New Rules for Credit Risk’.  By following these rules organizations can be ready today for whatever regulatory or economic changes occur in the future (revolution or not), safe in…

In recent years, the world agricultural markets have seen a surge in prices and volatility brought about by several factors including poor harvests, sustained demand, increased use of agricultural products for fuel, increased activity on commodity markets and soaring oil prices causing fuel and fertilizer costs to rise. As a result, Growers, Originators and Producers are starting to adopt CTRM systems, typically used by energy companies, in order to gain the real-time business intelligence they need to make optimal decisions around trade execution, position management, and physical logistics.

Triple Point has been helping traditional energy and commodity trading companies manage…

On July 14, 2011, the CFTC issued an Order providing relief from most provisions of Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Act that were slated to become effective July 16, 2011 to now expire upon the effective date of the final rules or December 31, 2011.  This allows more time for comments and provisions that do not require a rulemaking but reference terms regarding swap entities or instruments that require further definition.

Besides the continued definition around what constitutes a swap and who is a swap dealer/major swap participant, the reporting requirements for transactions are still evolving.  Organizations like DTCC and…

In a recent article, Reuters ranked the world’s top independent oil and commodity traders, identifying Vitol Group, Glencore International AG, Cargill Inc., Koch Industries, Trafigura, and Gunvor International as the largest. Four of the top six organizations, Glencore, Cargill, Trafigura and Gunvor, rely on Triple Point’s commodity management software to effectively manage their commodities and enterprise risk.

Triple Point’s Commodity XL™ provides them with a real-time, enterprise view of position, supply chain, and risk. They use the enterprise, multi-commodity platform to deliver superior business intelligence for proactive decision-making and competitive advantage. Commodity XL integrates physical and financial trading, provides sensitivity analysis,…

The historic downgrade of the US government debt by Standard & Poor’s (S&P) on Friday has shaken the markets worldwide. Brent Crude dropped $10 and suffered the biggest two-day decline since 2009— highlighting just how quickly commodity markets can swing in the heat of a crisis. Rueter’s reported yesterday that Brent crude fell to $98.74 a barrel, the lowest intraday price since February 8, and was down from an April peak above $127. This week’s market turmoil leaves many asking, what must I do to survive in this global economic uncertainty?

Analysts are warning…

Chemical companies reported mixed results for the 2nd quarter 2011.  Some organizations, such as Dow, disclosed excellent results.  Andrew N. Liveris, Dow’s chairman and chief executive officer, stated “this marked another quarter of tremendous progress for Dow. We delivered significant and broad-based top-line growth, and reached a new quarterly sales record in emerging geographies.”  On the other hand, some businesses were not as thrilled with their reported results.  AkzoNobel’s CEO, Hans Wijers, said “I am not satisfied with our performance in the quarter, despite positive volume and pricing developments.”

Despite mixed results, there was a common theme across all chemical…

So, here we are, one year later, and still trying to get our collective heads around the complexity introduced by the Dodd-Frank Act.  So, how’s progress? Well, let’s take a quick look at the numbers.  As of July 27th, the CFTC had finalized 11 out of the 47 rules required, only 23% of the way there.  The SEC is fairing at about the same rate of finalization.  Now it is important to note that we’re primarily talking about Title VII of the DFA; other sections of the law haven’t had a stellar rule adoption rate either. This raises the question,…

In January of 2008, Triple Point acquired Softmar, the leading provider of software to manage chartering and vessel operations, including freight risk management. As the freight derivatives market grows in sophistication — so must the range of strategies used. The acquisition enabled Triple Point to immediately provide our customers with solutions to optimize freight management and deepened our solution suite to offer market-based, commodity supply chain management across sourcing, transportation, inventory, operations, and product marketing. In today’s complex and ever-changing commodities markets, the most successful companies are those best prepared to identify risk and model its dynamics, measure and quantify…