Benoît Hélin
Senior Commodity Trader
«Buy low and sell high. It’s pretty simple. The problem is knowing what’s low and what’s high.»
Benoît is in charge of expanding commodity trading across all markets: from metals to the energy complex and agricultural products.
As Senior Proprietary Trader, he designs and trades a wide range of discretionary strategies based on macro, fundamental, technical and quantitative analyses. Cumulating 9 years of experience on both listed and OTC derivatives markets, Benoît spent 6 years as a Commodity Fund Manager and Analyst at SMA Gestion in Paris where he co-managed 3 funds invested on commodity markets of all kind, among which two of them had major exposures to precious metals. He built a strong fundamental expertise there but also conducted numerous equity and credit financial analyses on companies belonging to the primary sector (oil & gas, mining, steel, agribusiness), allowing him to sharpen his knowledge of commodities.
Then he spent close to 3 years at the group treasury department of ArcelorMittal as a Senior Trader where he structured, pitched and implemented hedging and trading strategies covering energy, base metals and bulks. Benoît was responsible for NAFTA gas & power books as well as petroleum mandates. He regularly took part in discussions and executions of trades related to EU gas and emissions.
Benoît holds a Master of Science in Management with a specialization in Finance from NEOMA Business School Reims and passed the first level of the CFA program. He is a guest lecturer at Rotterdam School of Management in the « Alternative Assets » module, reviewing fundamentals of a new commodity market every year while teaching about the most commonly used derivative instruments and structures to benefit from market opportunities. In his spare time, Benoît enjoys drumming: « playing a rhythmic instrument requires a high level of discipline, strong energy flows and an ability to carefully listen to your environment. »
Same when working on the markets: it is absolutely necessary to always calibrate well your strike (strategies) and to follow closely the tempo no matter what (distinguish the noise from the overall trend or reversal).