The World for Sale (Javier Blas, Jack Farchy)

Trader's Library #81 · Market history, crises and scandals. Behind the scenes of commodity trading: who really makes money on oil, metals and grain.

Author: Javier Blas, Jack Farchy · Original: The World for Sale · Year: 2021 · Usefulness for traders: ★★★★☆

What it's about

Bloomberg journalists tell the history of the commodity trading houses (Glencore, Vitol, Trafigura, Cargill) since the days of Marc Rich: how they make money on oil, metals and grain, and how their business is entangled with politics and corruption.

What it gives a trader

The book shows who really stands on the other side of commodity markets: firms with physical access to the goods and information the market doesn't have. It's also a good explanation of how geopolitics feeds through to prices.

Lessons for traders

• the biggest edge is often information from the physical market
• geopolitics changes commodity prices, and through them inflation and indices
• arbitrage across places and time is the essence of commodity trading

What to watch out for

Plenty about corruption and politics, less about the price mechanism itself.

Discussion

The discussion takes place in Hetman Capital Club (in Polish). Join the discussion in the Club →

Navigation

← #080 Flash Boys (Michael Lewis) · Library index · #082 The 1920s and the 1929 Crash: Allen and Burns →

Educational content, not investment advice. The book description is my own summary and assessment, not quotations. Edition details were checked in catalogues and bookshops, and where there was doubt I said so plainly.