STA Blog

Timed to perfection – as even mainstream news cottoned on to the effect soaring wholesale energy prices would have on retail and business customers – the hybrid conference (part via video link and part in person) kicked off at Chelsea football club’s Stamford Bridge premises on Tuesday the 5th October 2021. A well-attended gathering in a big venue, I felt I was at the Conservative Party Conference as there was minimal security, no need for vaccine passports, no facemasks and no social distancing. First time I’ve experienced this since lockdown!

The STA’s Eddie Tofpik, Head of Technical Analysis & Senior Markets Analyst at ADM Investor Services International LTD, got the show rolling by moderating an eclectic panel who had been asked to discuss the subject: ‘Winter is Coming’. His first guest, Paul Monk who has been at Catalyst Commodities since 2014, spoke generally about the current state of the energy wholesale markets and proved very knowledgeable and up to date. Next up was Jeremy Plester of MetDesk, who I dubbed the ‘weather man’ as, funnily enough, that’s what he does. He pointed out that lack of wind and sun this year had impacted on the ability of renewables to produce the nearly half of UK energy they currently supply. Another very tuned in speaker was Latif Fayez of Northern Gas and Power, a business to business broker. Rounding out the panel was Nick Speechley of Octopus Energy (AKA my gas man), who had to field many questions from the audience about the state of the smaller retail suppliers and the problems of retail price caps versus wholesale prices where upside is unlimited.

Left to right: Eddie, Clive, Nicole and Trevor

The second panel session was fielded by the STA, with Trevor Neil of Beta Group moderating. Our topic was: ‘Looking for the Edge’, the idea being that technical analysis gave energy traders an advantage. This included audience participation as to what they thought on the topic by voting on their smartphones. Eddie was joined by Clive Lambert of Futurestechs and myself, Nicole Elliott. Trevor did an excellent job herding us into covering a wide array of topics on and relating to our specialist subject. After our ramblings and lively questions from the audience, we were delighted to hear that only 5% of the audience felt that technical analysis didn’t have an edge. Preaching to the converted, obviously!

Following us were Steve Goldstein of AlphRCubed, a familiar face at STA monthly meetings and Mark Randall who has his own consultancy of the same name and who has 40 years’ experience in the area of (oh so trendy) mindfulness.

Technical analysts front and centre!