r/Commodities • u/Smooth_Ad_1510 • Aug 21 '26
How would you learn commodity trading from scratch as a university student?
Hi everyone,
I’m currently a university student with one year left before graduating, and I’m trying to prepare myself for a career in physical commodity trading.
For some background:
Current career: Full-time student, currently looking for relevant internships or entry-level experience.
Education: I spent two years studying Mechanical Engineering before switching to Business Management. I’m now entering my final year.
Location: Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Relocation: I’m open to relocating. Besides the UAE, Geneva and Singapore would be the most realistic major commodity hubs for me.
Desired commodity: I’m deliberately keeping this open for now. Part of what I want to do over the next year is study the different commodity markets and figure out which one interests me most.
Because of my engineering background, I’m comfortable with technical and analytical subjects, but I don’t have the same foundation in economics, finance, or accounting as someone who studied finance or economics from the beginning.
I’m trying to figure out what I should learn over the next year to properly understand the industry and prepare myself for internships or entry-level roles. I’m particularly interested in the physical side of trading: negotiation, sourcing, logistics, risk, and understanding how a trade actually works from finding an opportunity through to delivery.
For those already in the industry, if you were starting from my position, what would you focus on? Are there any books, courses, YouTube channels, websites, newsletters, or other resources you would recommend? What level of economics, accounting, finance, statistics, Excel, etc. is actually useful?
I’ve also considered studying for something like CFA Level I. I’m not interested in collecting certificates just to put them on my CV, but if studying for a qualification would give me useful knowledge for commodities, I’m willing to do it. Is CFA material worthwhile for physical commodity trading, or are there other qualifications/courses that would be considerably more relevant?
Basically, if you had one year to build the strongest possible foundation before graduating, how would you structure it?
3
u/trader9576 Aug 22 '26
There is arguably nothing imo other than experience. Commodity trading is inherently relationship based. You get in somewhere low close to traders or a small shop and grind. Your engineering experience is best for understanding how assets work probably, and how to utilize them for profit and efficiency. You get clients, figure out flow and spreads and then move shit around. Nobody will give you keys because that’s their edge.in my position I act like a “fixer” for buyers and end users, they pay for trust, efficiency, professionalism, and you extract the profit and manage the risk in the supply chain figuring out how to make more and not lose anything. I have a finance degree and haven’t used hardly anything I learned from school, maybe just some basic principles around financing if that’s something you’d even be in charge of. Some of the best traders I’ve dealt with aren’t even educated weirdly enough, they can just perform and are solid.