Energy Trading Fundamentals
Trading desks pay around £850 a day for a developer who understands the trade. It's the one trading-tech rate that rose this year.
The free guides below teach how a desk makes and loses money: the grid, gas, the spark spread, positions and P&L. The community on Skool takes you the rest of the way. On Premium, Jordan Dimov reviews your code.
Day rates: IT Jobs Watch, UK contracts, six months to 9 November 2026.
Why desks pay for this
Energy is traded on physics. Electricity can't be stored, gas moves through pipes, and a power station takes hours to start. Every price, position and P&L number on a desk carries those limits.
Desks can't find developers who understand those limits. Generic developers pass the coding test and fail the P&L question. Traders can't explain to IT what they need.
When you understand the trade, you can sit with a trader, follow the position and the P&L, and build the system that calculates them.
The Curriculum
Physical Foundations of Energy Commodities
Grid balance, merit order dispatch, infrastructure constraints
Why start here: You can't understand energy markets without understanding physics. Learn why electricity supply must match demand within milliseconds, how merit order dispatch works, and why physical constraints create trading opportunities.
How Power Trading Works
Day-ahead auctions, intraday trading, gate closure, imbalance settlement
Builds on: Physical Foundations taught you why power must balance every second. This guide follows one half-hour of power from the day-ahead auction to the imbalance bill, with the sums worked through.
The Global Gas Market
LNG shipping, netback pricing, storage arbitrage
Builds on: Physical Foundations taught you why gas plants set marginal power prices. This guide shows you where gas prices come from - the global infrastructure connecting US shale to UK power plants.
Spark Spread & Power Plant Economics
CCGT dispatch decisions, efficiency factors, carbon costs
Builds on: Modules 1 and 2 gave you both sides of the spark spread: power prices from the merit order, gas prices from global markets. Learn to calculate the margin that determines which plants run.
Position Aggregation & Delta Exposure
Portfolio risk calculation, net position management
Builds on: Now that you understand energy products and their economics, learn how traders track what they own. Master position aggregation, the three-key rule, and delta exposure - the foundation every trading system uses.
Mark-to-Market P&L Calculation
Daily valuation, unrealized gains/losses, risk reporting
Builds on: You know your positions (Module 5). Now learn to value them. Calculate unrealized P&L, understand realized vs unrealized gains, and interpret what risk managers watch daily.
In their words
"Jordan's in-depth explainers on topics ranging from interconnector flows to viewing gas-fired generators through option frameworks helped me get my role as an analyst on a power and gas trading desk. The coding element of the course boosted my software development skills and taught me best practices and has been invaluable for my new role."
"I spent time at a private equity firm doing BESS modelling, then moved to Smartest Energy working on power contracts on the trading desk. The learning resources you sent over came in really useful along the way."
The plans
The full energy trading course is in the Energy Trading & ETRM Skills community on Skool, priced in US dollars. Pay by the month or by the year. Every plan is on energy trading and ETRM courses.
Standard
Learn how the desk works.
$78 a month
Or $690 a year: you save $246.
- Energy Trading Fundamentals, the textbook guides.
- Python for Commodities.
- The Practitioner Track: the advanced guides.
- BESS Economics.
Recommended
Premium
Build it, and Jordan checks your work.
$397 a month
Or $2,850 a year: you save $1,914.
A month costs less than half a day at the rate desks pay.
- Jordan reviews every pull request on your projects, within three working days.
- Jordan reviews your CV, then introduces you to recruiters who place into trading technology.
- Bootcamps and one to one are open to Premium members only.
- The Systems Builder Track: hands-on projects.
- Jordan's Slack community.
- Everything in Standard.
Submit your first project. If Jordan's review isn't worth the month, email us within 14 days for a full refund.
For a team: VIP. One invoice, with seats you can reassign. See the VIP plan
What You'll Master
- UK power grid operations - NESO dispatch, balancing mechanism, merit order pricing
- Global gas market dynamics - LNG shipping economics, Henry Hub to NBP pricing lag, storage arbitrage
- Spark spread calculations - CCGT dispatch optimization, efficiency factors, clean dark spreads
- Position management - Signed quantities, three-key aggregation rule, delta exposure, hedge ratios
- P&L calculation - Mark-to-market mechanics, realized vs unrealized, real-time risk monitoring
- Python implementation - Build production-ready calculators and position engines
Who This Is For
Software Engineers
Building ETRM systems, trading platforms, or risk engines? This curriculum teaches you what the business side actually does, so you can build software that solves real problems.
Quants & Analysts
Moving from other markets? Energy trading requires understanding physical constraints that financial models often miss. Learn the domain fundamentals before building sophisticated analytics.
Aspiring Traders
Want to transition into energy trading? This curriculum covers what you'd learn in your first 6 months on a trading desk, taught systematically instead of through trial and error.
Prerequisites
No prior energy market knowledge required. The curriculum starts from first principles.
Helpful background:
- Basic supply/demand economics
- Comfortable with arithmetic and algebra
- Python basics (for implementation sections)
New to energy trading entirely? Start with Energy Trading 101 first.
Time Commitment
Each module includes:
- Main guide: 45-60 minute read
- Full guide: in the community on Skool, with worked examples, updated regularly
- Mastery exercises: 1-2 hours hands-on practice
Total curriculum: about 15 hours for the whole path, with exercises.
Modules build on each other sequentially. Budget 1 week working part-time or 2-3 days full-time.
Related Learning Resources
Physical vs Financial Energy Trading
Understand the crucial difference between trading the physical commodity and trading financial derivatives - and why both matter.
Career Roadmaps
What each role on or beside a trading desk does, what its interviews ask, and what to study first. Free to read here.
Energy Trading 101
A software engineer's introduction covering the basics: what is energy trading, who are the players, and what role does technology play?
Read the guides free. When you want the rest of the series and the projects, the plans are above. On Premium, Jordan reviews your code.
See the plans and prices