Back to ACRE

Commodity Processors & Traders

Optimize earnings and volatility with advanced analytics

ACRE helps companies that trade and process commodities to increase earnings resilience by co-developing advanced analytics decision-support tools to manage market risk.

What we do

Opportunity identification

We rapidly identify opportunities to increase earnings potential and reduce downside risk by back testing various static and dynamic risk management strategies against historical results.

Decision-support tools

We build bespoke tools that tailor ACRE’s machine-learning algorithms to attain an optimal balance of earnings and volatility, while respecting risk appetite and capital constraints.

Capability building

We train talent experientially by co-developing tools alongside teams to instill long-lasting capabilities and ensure new decision-making models are embraced by organizations.

Our Approach

ACRE helps clients improve commodity risk management performance by combining the right data, the right analytics, and the right experts. By fostering collaboration between traders and data scientists, we enable clients to identify their data advantages and successfully implement advanced analytics that capture value by focusing on the risks they are best positioned to own. We tailor our approach in every project to best meet each client’s needs, challenges, and opportunities. Our analytical outputs include:

Hedging decision support

For risk managers to view their volumetric position, assess analytics-driven strategy recommendations, and understand how recommendations are made by comparing the influence of model features

Performance management

For business leadership to understand performance drivers with a granular view across commodities, forward periods, business units, regions, and managers

Risk controls

For managers to track financial implications of commodity prices changes relative to established risk limits, and a segmented view of risk-return to help reallocate risk within a broader portfolio
Our deep pool of seasoned experts has real-life experience that complements our analytics and drives value for clients.

“An economist and fundamental trader by training, I learned how anticipating supply and demand can be used to forecast changes in futures and basis prices. In partnership with colleagues who have quantitative trading experience, we’ve been able to help clients create models that rapidly identify game-changing predictions from their proprietary data. We do this by integrating supply and demand insights with price momentum signals and extremely dense remote sensing and weather data. Together, we are discovering results I never would have believed a decade ago.”

Tay, Solution Leader

Examples of our work

Assessed impact of hedging on total shareholder returns and insolvency risk

Developed the corporate strategy for a commodity producer considering hedging strategies to reduce insolvency risk and strengthen balance sheet resiliency.

2 to 7 percent sales price uplift achieved from strategies that also reduced downside risk

Sized margin expansion potential of pricing strategies that also reduced value-at-risk for clients in agriculture, metals, and mining sectors.

Over $200 million of incremental revenue potential identified

Developed a rules-based sales price protection strategy for a basic materials company.

Featured Insights

Article

How the Iowa derecho has affected 2020 crops

– An estimated 3.1 million to 3.8 million acres of corn and soybeans have been damaged.
Article

Needle in a haystack: Patents that inspire agricultural innovation

– An enhanced patent-review strategy could boost innovation capabilities for agricultural-input companies.
Article

Unlocking the online retail opportunity with European farmers

– What can digital retailers in the agriculture sector do to encourage what could be a €10 billion market?

Connect with ACRE