Hands-On ETRM Masterclass: Energy Trades, Risk & Real Screen

This lecture introduces the fundamentals of trading within an Energy Trading and Risk Management (ETRM) environment.

You will understand "What is Trading" in the context of energy and commodities.

Different Energy Commodities in ETRM

This lecture introduces the major energy commodities traded through ETRM systems.

You’ll learn:

• The key characteristics of Oil, Natural Gas, Power, and Coal

• How each commodity’s value chain works - from production to delivery

By the end of this lecture, you’ll understand about different energy commodities traded and what makes each energy commodity unique.

Conceptual ETRM - Trading, Risk, and Mitigation

This lecture focuses on the core concepts that sit at the heart of every ETRM system, helping you understand how trading decisions translate into risk and how those risks are managed in real energy trading organizations.

You’ll learn:

• The different types of risks in energy trading:

  • Market Risk (price movements)

  • Credit Risk (counterparty default)

  • System Risk

  • Regulatory Risk

• How these risks arise from everyday trading activities

• Practical examples of trading with risk

• How energy companies mitigate risk using hedging instruments

By the end of this lecture, you’ll be able to connect trading activity to risk outcomes, understand why risk management is central to ETRM systems, and explain these concepts clearly in interviews or real project discussions.

ETRM Lifecycle - Front Office, Middle Office, and Back Office

This lecture explains the end-to-end lifecycle of a trade in an ETRM system, viewed through the roles of Front Office (FO), Middle Office (MO), and Back Office (BO).

You’ll learn:

• What responsibilities sit with Front Office, including trading, pricing, and risk taking

• How Middle Office validates trades, monitors risk, and ensures controls are followed

• How Back Office handles confirmations, settlement, invoicing, and accounting

• How a single trade moves across FO -> MO -> BO in an ETRM system

Using simple examples, this lecture shows how PnL, risk, and cashflows are connected across departments and why coordination between FO, MO, and BO is critical in energy trading organizations.

By the end of this lecture, you’ll clearly understand who does what in the ETRM lifecycle and how ETRM systems support each function.

ETRM System Architecture - How Trading Systems connect

This lecture explains the high-level architecture of an ETRM system and how it integrates with the wider trading technology ecosystem used by energy and commodity trading organizations.

You’ll learn:

• The core components of an ETRM system and their responsibilities

• How Market Data Providers supply prices, curves, and indices for valuation and risk

• How E-Trade Confirmation platforms connect to ETRM for confirmations and matching

• How Exchanges and Clearing Houses interact with ETRM for futures, margins, and settlements

• How Credit Risk platforms consume exposure and limit data from ETRM

• How Regulatory Reporting systems receive trade and position data for compliance

• How Reporting and BI tools consume PnL, MTM, risk, and operational data

The lecture focuses on data flow and dependencies rather than tools, helping you understand how information moves in and out of an ETRM system and why integration failures often lead to valuation, risk, or settlement issues.

By the end of this lecture, you’ll have a clear mental model of how ETRM fits into the overall trading system landscape, making it easier to understand real-world implementations and integration discussions.

Trade Booking in an ETRM System

This lecture explains how trades are captured and modeled inside an ETRM system, and why correct trade booking is critical for valuation, risk, and settlement.

You’ll learn:

• What actually happens when a trade is booked in an ETRM system

• The key parameters required to capture a deal, such as:

  • Legal Entity and Counterparty

  • Portfolio and Book

  • Instrument and contract type

  • Price, quantity, delivery period, and location

• The difference between physical and financial contracts

• Common contract types such as spot, forward, swaps, and indexed deals

• How trade attributes drive downstream processes like MTM, exposure, and cashflows

The lecture also walks through a sample trade booking, showing how a single deal is represented in the system.

By the end of this lecture, you’ll understand how to book trades correctly in an ETRM system, and why trade booking is more about domain understanding than just data entry.

Front Office Operations in ETRM system - Sample trade walkthrough

This lecture provides a hands-on view of Front Office (FO) operations within an ETRM system, using a sample trade scenario to show how traders interact with the system in real life.

You’ll learn:

• How Front Office users capture and review trades in an ETRM tool

• The key trade entry screens and fields used during deal booking

• How pricing, volume, delivery dates, and portfolios are selected

• How credit checks and limits are triggered at trade entry

• What validations happen before a trade is saved and confirmed

• How FO decisions immediately impact risk, PnL, and exposure

Using screenshots and system snapshots, this lecture demonstrates how a single trade moves from trader intent to a validated trade in the system, highlighting the checks and controls that protect the business.

By the end of this lecture, you’ll understand how Front Office operations work inside an ETRM system, and how traders balance speed, risk, and controls while booking deals.

Middle Office Operations in ETRM - Sample trade walkthrough

This lecture walks through Middle Office (MO) operations in an ETRM system using a sample trade scenario, showing how risk and valuation are monitored after a trade is booked by Front Office.

You’ll learn:

• How Middle Office reviews and validates trades captured by Front Office

• How Day 0 P&L (MTM) is calculated and analyzed

• How exposure and price movements impact unrealized PnL

• How counterparty credit limits and exposure reports are checked

• How scheduled deal movements and delivery timelines are reviewed

• What controls and checks MO performs before trades move further in the lifecycle

Using system snapshots and reports, this lecture demonstrates how Middle Office ensures trades are valued correctly, within limits, and aligned with risk policies.

By the end of this lecture, you’ll understand how Middle Office acts as the risk gatekeeper between trading and settlement, and how MO uses ETRM tools to protect the organization from market and credit risk.

Back Office Operations in ETRM - Sample trade walkthrough

This lecture provides a practical walkthrough of Back Office (BO) operations in an ETRM system using a sample trade scenario, showing how trades are taken from delivery through settlement, accounting, and reporting.

You’ll learn:

• How physical delivery and actual quantities are captured and validated

• How invoices and cashflows are generated from trades

• How deal settlement is processed, including netting and payment flows

• How accounting entries are created and posted from ETRM

• How trades are prepared for regulatory reporting and compliance

Using system snapshots and examples, this lecture demonstrates how Back Office ensures that what was traded is correctly delivered, paid for, accounted, and reported.

By the end of this lecture, you’ll understand how Back Office operations close the trade lifecycle and why BO accuracy is critical for cash, compliance, and financial reporting in energy trading organizations.

Course Conclusion - Your Path forward in ETRM

In this final lecture, we recap the key concepts covered throughout the course and connect them back to how ETRM systems are used in real trading organizations.

We briefly revisit:

• Core ETRM concepts and trading fundamentals

• Energy commodities and how they are modeled

• Trade booking and the end-to-end FO, MO, and BO lifecycle

• Risk, PnL, settlement, and system architecture

• How all these pieces come together inside an ETRM platform

We also discuss how this course can help you move forward in your ETRM journey whether you are:

• A developer transitioning into ETRM

• A business or support analyst preparing for interviews

• A professional looking to deepen domain understanding

The lecture closes with a look at career opportunities in ETRM, next learning steps, and how to continue building hands-on experience in this domain.

Thank you for being part of this course and welcome to the ETRM community.