本文选自Financial Times 2023年3月5日的报道，原作者Leslie Hook。
这篇新闻的重心依旧是欧洲去年由俄乌战争所导致的能源危机问题。和其他类似题材的报道不同的是：本文并没有一味讲分析的中心放在俄罗斯对于欧洲实施的天然气断供一方面给整个欧洲都带来了更高的能源成本，而是更加注重浮动的价格给期货市场带来的赚钱良机，从而给到我们一个非常不一样的视角看待这场危机。
新闻节选
The commodity industry made record gross profits of more than $115bn from trading activities last year, as volatile energy prices resulting from the war in Ukraine drove big swings in the market.
The biggest gainers were the independent trading houses — such as Trafigura, Vitol and Glencore — which had the balance sheets to stay in the market, according to a new study from Oliver Wyman.
“This year was a bit of a perfect storm across all the commodities, from a trading opportunity perspective,” said Ernst Frankl, partner at the consultancy and one of the authors of the report. “Volatility is the lifeblood of what traders need in order to trade.”
The European energy crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine, as well as the imposition of sanctions on certain Russian commodities, drove a big shift in global trade flows, leading to longer voyage times as well as price volatility across commodity classes.
Trading gross profits in the sector — including banks, hedge funds, independent traders and asset-backed traders such as energy majors — soared to $115bn, up 60 per cent from the previous year and nearly three times higher than pre-pandemic levels, according to the study.
Financial players such as hedge funds also enjoyed big gains, earning an estimated $12bn from trading activities in 2022 compared with less than $3bn the year before.
单词积累
- Trading houses 大宗商品贸易商
- Balance Sheet 资产负债表
- Sanction 制裁
- Voyage 航行，游历
- Hedge funds 对冲基金
相关Alevel知识点复习
- Commodity Price（Unit2 / Unit4）
Commodity Price的变化是alevel中非常常见的一个考点。一般说起大宗商品的价格，volatile应该会是我们脑中蹦出的第一个单词。当然，也提醒各位同学，我们一般默认commodities的价格弹性为inelastic。
其不稳定的价格一方面会很大程度上影响到一个国家的Balance of Payment，另一方面也会影响Export-led Growth，这两个观点都经常可以在我们的大作文的写作中被使用到。
那么顺着这个逻辑往下思考，也很容易想到宏观的两个unit都有出现的over-dependence on export以及trade liberalization & specification的缺点中都可以说的vulnerable to external shock的观点。
- Forward Market（Unit1 Chapter 4）
在Unit1介绍金融市场时出现的期货市场的概念，曾经在考试中也以一分的选择题的形式出现过。需要记忆的点在于其交易的商品往往以commodities和foreign currencies为主。
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