Commodity Trader

1. JOB PURPOSE

The Senior Gold & Silver Trader will be responsible for managing and executing the company's gold and silver trading activities across domestic and international markets, with a strong focus on market intelligence, physical bullion procurement and sales, pricing, hedging, inventory management, risk management, and trading profitability.

The role requires an experienced professional with a deep understanding of precious metals markets, international bullion prices, MCX, OTC/London market dynamics, USD/INR movements, import economics, premiums/discounts, refinery operations, and customer demand.

The position will play a critical role in optimizing the company's bullion inventory and trading book while ensuring that trading activities remain within approved risk limits and compliance requirements.

2. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

A. Gold & Silver Trading

• Execute gold and silver trades in accordance with approved trading strategies and limits.
• Monitor domestic and international bullion markets on a real-time basis.
• Track international spot prices, futures prices, MCX Gold/Silver, LBMA prices, USD/INR and international market premiums.
• Identify profitable trading opportunities based on market movements, spreads, premiums and discounts.
• Execute purchase and sale transactions with approved suppliers, dealers, banks, bullion houses and institutional customers.
• Negotiate purchase and sale prices, premiums, discounts and commercial terms.
• Maintain appropriate trading positions based on approved risk parameters.
• Optimize buying and selling timing to maximize trading margins.
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with bullion suppliers, refineries, banks, institutional buyers and large customers.

3. PHYSICAL BULLION TRADING

The incumbent will be responsible for managing the complete commercial cycle of physical bullion transactions, including:

• Gold dore procurement.
• Refined gold procurement.
• Gold bars and bullion trading.
• Silver bullion procurement and sales.
• Domestic bullion sourcing.
• Import-related commercial evaluation.
• Refinery-linked trading.
• Assessment of purity, fineness and recoverable metal.
• Evaluation of supplier quotations.
• Premium/discount negotiation.
• Monitoring delivery schedules and settlement.
• Coordination with refinery, assaying, logistics and finance teams.
• Monitoring physical inventory and metal balances.

4. MARKET ANALYSIS & PRICE DISCOVERY

Continuously monitor and analyze:

• International gold and silver spot prices.
• LBMA Gold and Silver prices.
• COMEX Gold and Silver.
• MCX Gold and Silver.
• USD/INR movements.
• Interest rates and central-bank policies.
• US Federal Reserve decisions.
• Inflation and economic indicators.
• Geopolitical developments.
• Central-bank gold purchases.
• ETF flows.
• Global mine supply and refinery supply.
• Import duties and Indian regulatory changes.
• Domestic bullion premiums and discounts.
• Jewellery and investment demand.
• Global and Indian market arbitrage opportunities.

Prepare daily and periodic market outlooks for senior management.

5. TRADING STRATEGY

• Develop short-term and medium-term trading strategies.
• Identify arbitrage opportunities between domestic and international markets.
• Monitor gold/silver spreads and inter-market opportunities.
• Evaluate physical versus paper market pricing.
• Analyze forward pricing and hedging requirements.
• Recommend inventory holding levels based on market conditions.
• Develop strategies to protect margins during volatile markets.
• Identify opportunities arising from market dislocations.
• Maintain discipline regarding approved position limits and stop-loss parameters.

6. HEDGING & RISK MANAGEMENT

• Develop and execute approved hedging strategies for physical bullion exposure.
• Monitor open positions and mark-to-market exposure.
• Track price risk and currency risk.
• Coordinate with Finance and Risk teams regarding MTM requirements.
• Monitor futures and other approved hedging instruments.
• Ensure trading positions remain within approved limits.
• Report unusual market movements and potential losses immediately.
• Maintain appropriate hedge ratios for physical inventory and committed transactions.
• Conduct scenario analysis for significant gold/silver price movements.

7. PROFITABILITY MANAGEMENT

The trader will have direct responsibility for optimizing trading profitability.

Key areas include:

• Gross trading margin.
• Purchase price optimization.
• Selling price optimization.
• Inventory gains/losses.
• Hedging gains/losses.
• Premium/discount management.
• Supplier economics.
• Customer profitability.
• Transaction costs.
• Financing costs.
• Logistics costs.
• Refining/recovery economics.

Prepare daily P&L / trading performance reports for management.

8. SUPPLIER & CUSTOMER MANAGEMENT

Build and maintain a strong bullion network covering:

Suppliers

• Bullion dealers.
• Banks and financial institutions.
• Refineries.
• Gold dore suppliers.
• Importers.
• Domestic bullion suppliers.
• Silver suppliers.

Customers

• Jewellery manufacturers.
• Jewellery retailers.
• Bullion dealers.
• Institutional customers.
• Investment customers.
• Export-oriented customers.

Responsibilities include:

• Supplier evaluation.
• Commercial negotiations.
• Price negotiation.
• Credit-term evaluation.
• Transaction confirmation.
• Relationship management.
• Market intelligence gathering.

9. INVENTORY MANAGEMENT

• Monitor daily gold and silver inventory.
• Ensure optimum inventory levels.
• Coordinate physical and system stock reconciliation.
• Monitor inventory ageing.
• Track metal under refining, transit and customer delivery.
• Identify excess or slow-moving inventory.
• Coordinate with Operations and Finance for inventory reconciliation.
• Ensure physical inventory is aligned with trading positions and hedges.

10. CROSS-FUNCTIONAL COORDINATION

Work closely with:

• Refinery Operations
• Assay & Quality Control
• Finance & Accounts
• Risk Management
• Logistics
• Customs
• Compliance
• Sales
• Procurement
• Senior Management

Ensure smooth movement of bullion from procurement refining/assaying inventory trading customer delivery settlement.

11. REPORTING & MIS

Prepare and submit:

Daily

• Gold & silver market report.
• Purchase and sales report.
• Open position report.
• Inventory report.
• Trading P&L.
• MTM report.
• Hedging report.
• Market outlook.
• Major transaction report.

Weekly

• Trading performance analysis.
• Supplier performance.
• Customer profitability.
• Market trend analysis.
• Risk exposure report.

Monthly

• Trading profitability analysis.
• Inventory turnover analysis.
• Hedging effectiveness.
• Price variance analysis.
• Trading strategy review.