How to Build an Energy Trading Desk: The Anatomy of Successful Setups

Energy trading has shifted from being the preserve of utilities and commodities specialists to a serious consideration for numerous hedge funds and investment banks. Power and gas markets sit at the crossroads of geopolitics, infrastructure, and the energy transition, offering both diversification and exposure to structural shifts in the global economy. But while the opportunity is compelling, the path to entry is more complex than in most other asset classes.

Building an energy trading desk is not simply about securing capital or hiring traders. To enter power and gas markets successfully, market entrants have to navigate layered market access procedures, put in place the right systems, and build teams equipped for the unique operational realities of energy.  

In this article, let’s take a look at the anatomy of a successful energy trading desk and break down how it differs from markets like oil, metals, and financial derivatives. For a step-by-step guide, including timelines, onboarding pain points, and infrastructure design, please take a look at our whitepaper “How to Build an Energy Trading Desk” →

Market Access: How to Enter Power and Gas Markets

The first step in building an energy trading desk is not hiring a trader or selecting a system. It’s securing market access. Unlike equities or futures, where entry is mainly a matter of opening the right clearing relationships, power and gas markets require you to prove operational readiness. Market access involves regulatory approvals, balance responsibility agreements, and the ability to interface directly with market infrastructure before your first trade can be placed.

This means engaging with several counterparties, each with its own role: Transmission System Operators (TSOs) who are responsible for grid stability and require that market participants have BRP status; National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) who grant trading and shipping licenses after thorough registration and KYC procedures; NEMOs and exchanges, who provide access to the short- and long-term power and gas auctions; as well as interconnectors and capacity platforms. Each adds a layer of documentation, testing, and deadlines, making stakeholder management just as important as financial preparation.

A robust market access setup provides not just the legal right to trade, but also credibility and operational reliability, which are the foundation every other part of the desk rests on.

Systems: What You Need to Trade Power and Gas Effectively

No trading desk can function without a strong technology backbone. In energy markets, systems are tools for speed and convenience as much as they are the key that allows you to manage complexity, ensure compliance, and scale without breaking. Unlike in other asset classes, the physical realities of power and gas (scheduling flows, balancing imbalances, securing cross-border capacity, etc.) demand systems that can link financial activity with physical delivery and ongoing regulatory compliance. From managing forward curves to nominating flows, every step depends on systems that can work together seamlessly.

How to handle data management in an energy trading desk?

Energy trading is data-intensive, with inputs from exchanges, brokers, weather models, storage reports, and policy updates to name a few. Left unmanaged, this information quickly becomes unworkable. Data management platforms harmonize these feeds into standardized, validated structures that traders and analysts can rely on. For energy traders, good data management is not a “nice to have”, it is the foundation of reliable pricing, P&L, and risk reporting.  

Our partner OpenDataDSL has contributed deep expertise on the topic in this whitepaper, showcasing how to use smart curves and automated ingestion pipelines to turn noisy data into actionable forward curves and forecasts.

Choosing the right trading platform for your energy trading desk

The platform is where the desk meets the markets. In power and gas, milliseconds matter, and systems must be able to handle low-latency execution, multi-venue access, and customizable workflows. But speed alone is not enough: stability, governance, and openness are just as critical. Our partner e*star highlights that today’s trading platforms must serve both discretionary traders and quants, providing intuitive GUIs and developer-friendly APIs side by side. Role-aware dashboards, algo libraries, and robust audit trails are no longer optional; they are the minimum standard for competing in volatile, fragmented markets.

Read more about the must-have attributes of energy trading platforms here →

Energy Trading Risk Management (ETRM) Systems: The Heart of Your Trading Desk

Sitting at the heart of your energy trading desk, ETRM systems are known as the single source of truth for trades, positions, and risk. They capture contracts from exchanges, brokers, and capacity platforms, tracking them through their lifecycle into settlement and reporting. ETRMs need to integrate seamlessly with compliance tools, provide real-time P&L, and support a wide range of instruments, from day-ahead power to long-term capacity rights. Our partner Energy One covers how to design systems that can scale with complexity while remaining operationally resilient in our expanded whitepaper “How to Build an Energy Trading Desk” →

The rest of the technology stack

Beyond these core pillars, market participants build several other systems and tools to serve their strategies and ensure their trading desk runs smoothly. Nominations and scheduling platforms ensure that trades translate into physical delivery, automatically sending schedules to TSOs and capacity platforms. Position management and risk dashboards give traders and analysts an overview of exposures across commodities and geographies. Many desks also develop bespoke modules for forecasting, storage optimization, or algorithmic strategies, often layered on top of vendor platforms.

What matters most when building this software infrastructure is interoperability and governance: the ability to connect bespoke systems without locking into a single vendor, while retaining control and oversight of your automated and algorithmic trading execution.

Desks that succeed are those that build modular, scalable infrastructures that can expand without disruption. In energy, systems determine whether data becomes an edge, whether trades flow smoothly into physical delivery, and whether you can scale into new markets without a full rebuild. The whitepaper explores these systems in detail, alongside advice on scalability, robustness, and agility.

The People: What’s Different When Hiring for Energy

Investment banks, hedge funds, and commodity houses already know how to build trading teams. But energy introduces roles and requirements that are less familiar, and these can catch new entrants off guard if not planned for. The key differences are less about who you hire, and more about why these roles matter differently in power and gas compared to other asset classes.

One difference is the role of schedulers, which doesn’t exist in equities, FX, or even most commodities. Because electricity cannot be stored and gas must be physically transported, schedulers are responsible for ensuring trades flow in line with grid or pipeline rules. Missed nominations can result in imbalance penalties or strained counterparty relationships. Similarly, compliance functions carry far more weight than in other markets. Obligations like REMIT, EMIR, and CBAM impose strict reporting and disclosure requirements that sit directly alongside trading activity. Compliance is an operational safeguard that protects credibility and avoids fines.

Another difference lies in the adaptability of traders themselves. We’ve seen financial derivatives traders struggle when faced with the physical realities of energy markets, while commodity traders from oil or shipping tend to adapt more quickly. Energy demands a mindset that balances commercial opportunity with logistical and regulatory landscapes.  

For smaller entrants, this often means starting lean with hybrid roles, while larger players develop specialist teams segmented by geography, product, and time horizon. In both cases, success comes from recognizing that people are not just executing trades, they are bridging financial strategies with physical delivery in real time.

Conclusion: How to Establish an Energy Trading Desk That Lasts

Market access, systems, and people form the anatomy of an energy trading desk. Together, they determine whether a new entrant can move beyond strategy on paper to actual participation in power and gas markets. But they are only the beginning. To build a desk that lasts, institutions must also think about agility, robustness, and scalability: qualities that ensure they can adapt to market change, withstand shocks, and expand without disruption.

This article has outlined the essentials, but the journey involves many more moving parts, from regulatory timelines and onboarding processes, to risk controls, vendor management, and long-term infrastructure design. For leaders preparing to take the next step, our full whitepaper provides a complete guide, drawing on the expertise of our specialists and contributions from our amazing partners at OpenDataDSL, e*star, and Energy One.

Download the whitepaper and prepare your organization to enter power and gas markets with confidence →  

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