Does this mean demand for physicals traders is going to grow?
The Financial Times has an interesting article today on the not-totally-unpredictable side effects of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's clampdown on commodities futures trading: investors are buying a lot more physical commodities instead.
Investors' alleged interest in physicals coincides with reports that someone is hoarding tin across warehouses in London. It also follows Deutsche Bank's recent partnership with sugar merchant Czarnikow, which will allow it to trade actual sugar as well as sugar derivatives. And it comes after Deutsche was obliged to restructure a commodities ETF to meet the CFTC's more stringent new position limits on futures holdings.
Logic suggests that all of this must be driving demand for people who know how to trade actual oil or wheat, rather than securities relating to them.
Apparently not, or at least not yet.
"We haven't seen any speeding up in demand for physicals traders. There's been no change," says Justin Pearson at commodities recruiter Human Capital.
Trish Collins of commodities recruiter Exchange Consulting, says banks don't appear to have a common strategy for extracting value from the agricultural commodities space: "Demand is split between banks trying to hire candidates with previous banking experience and those with a background in physical trading and logistics."
