Blog
Where the margin leaks in a commodity deal
Written for traders and operations managers at small and mid-sized houses. Every article solves one concrete problem, whether or not you use Granel.
The €40,000 formula error nobody caught until the year-end close
A reconstructed case: two cost lines typed just below a SUM range leave €400 per container out of the margin. How it happened and three checks that catch it.
Read the article
How to see that a trade is heading for trouble three weeks before it ships
Margin below your average, freight high for its route, loading with no documents and a late milestone: the 4 signs that warn weeks ahead, and how to track them.
Read
The 6 milestones that stop a shipment from falling apart
Booking, gate-in, on board, B/L, arrival and release: what must be done at each milestone, when it falls due and what to check if a date slips by.
Read
What a container really costs, line by line
The full cost of a 20-tonne container, from the FOB purchase to the customer’s warehouse: thirteen lines, who pays each one under each Incoterm, and VAT.
Read
You bought at 2,400 and today the market pays 2,250: what your unsold goods are worth
Mark-to-market in physical trading: what the goods you bought and have not sold are worth today, the formula, where the price comes from, units and currencies.
Read
The deal you thought was a winner that closed at a loss
A deal with €7,800 of margin on the sheet that ends at −€1,212: the eight variances in order, when each one was known and how to reconcile actual costs.
Read
How much product do you have bought but not sold, or sold but not bought? If it takes you more than 10 seconds to say, you have a problem
Open position in physical commodity trading: goods bought but not sold (long) or sold but not bought (short), with the sum by product and a 10-second test.
Read
The 9 costs that eat your GP and are not in your spreadsheet
The nine costs of importing or exporting a container that almost no spreadsheet captures, how to estimate each one before you quote and what they eat.
Read
The FX gap that opens between fixing the price and getting paid
FX risk on one container, line by line: the euro move that wipes out your margin, when the exposure ends and four ways to manage it.
Read
Why the margin in your spreadsheet is not the margin you collect
Your sheet shows the budgeted margin; the bank credits the settled one. One container line by line, the five leaks between them and how to reconcile.
Read
Demurrage: the surprise invoice nobody budgets for
Why demurrage is rarely bad luck, how tiered charges add up, and the three dates that warn you two weeks before the vessel berths.
Read
Your forwarder is overcharging you and your spreadsheet cannot prove it
How to build a historical freight benchmark per route from your own shipments, and spot the outlier before you pay the invoice.
Read
How to audit your trading spreadsheet in an afternoon: the 5 faults that break the margin
The five errors that make your spreadsheet margin differ from the real one, each with the exact check that catches it in your own file.
Read