Online · Self-paced + live · CPD certified
Understand coal markets. Manage the risk.
The International Coal Academy teaches traders, utility managers and anyone curious about energy how coal is mined, shipped, priced and hedged, from the physical cargo to swaps, options and Value-at-Risk.
- 10
- modules
- 27
- lessons
- 8h+
- self-paced
- 16.5
- CPD hours
API2 forward curve, $/t
Steep backwardation (Aug 2022)
Who it is for
Built for people who buy, sell, hedge or analyse coal
Traders
Build and manage physical and paper positions, spreads and options with a disciplined risk framework.
Utility managers
Hedge fuel procurement against power sales, understand margining, and report risk to the board.
Miners, shippers and analysts
Understand how quality, freight and indices turn tonnes into prices, and how producers hedge.
Anyone curious about energy
A practical, numbers-first introduction to how the world's largest power fuel is traded.
Learn by doing
Not just slides: practise every concept
Real market cases
Every hedge, spread and settlement uses real API2, API4 and NEWC prices from 2019–2026.
Trading simulations
Run a coal trading desk: take positions on a live-moving forward curve, meet margin calls, stay within VaR limits.
Interactive calculators
Black-Scholes, VaR, volatility and correlation, dark spreads, swap settlement and mark-to-market tools.
Live sessions
Join scheduled sessions with the instructor (CET and SGT friendly) and watch the recordings afterwards.
Ask the expert
Post questions under every lesson; the instructor answers in the thread.
CPD certificate
Pass the ten module quizzes to earn a verifiable certificate worth 16.5 CPD hours.
Curriculum
Coal Markets and Risk Management
- 01
The physical coal market
What coal is, how quality drives value, where it is mined and shipped, and why the power sector still depends on it.
- 02
The steam coal derivatives market
Why hedge, how coal swaps work and settle, the main indices and their methodologies, and who trades them.
- 03
Hedging in practice: group case studies
Six real-price case studies: speculation, utility procurement hedges, mining offtakes, floating-price sales, arbitrage and forward-curve spreads.
- 04
Clearing and exchange trading
Why the market moved to clearing, how a clearing house removes counterparty risk, and how initial and variation margin flow.
- 05
Forward curve, price forecast and mark-to-market
Daily valuation of positions, the difference between a forward curve and a forecast, and what backwardation and contango tell you.
- 06
Case study: Metallgesellschaft
A $1.3 billion derivatives loss: stack-and-roll hedging, basis risk, funding liquidity and governance.
- 07
Introduction to options
Calls and puts, payoff diagrams, the drivers of premium, Black-Scholes and the Greeks, and options hidden in physical contracts.
- 08
Coal market outlook
Highlights of Perret Associates' short-, medium- and long-term view (June 2026), including the impact of the Iran crisis.
- 09
Introduction to technical analysis
Using price history to frame trading decisions: support, resistance, trends, moving averages, RSI and MACD.
- 10
Understanding risk management indicators
Lessons from trading disasters, then volatility, correlation, delta, Value-at-Risk, and how not to be fooled by them.
Your instructor
Guillaume Perret
Founder & Director, Perret Associates
Guillaume founded Perret Associates in London in 2006. The firm specialises in international coal, power, LNG, iron ore and steel markets. It publishes short-, medium- and long-term coal price forecasts, a live supply-demand model and a coal power plant database, and is authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority.
With a guest session on clearing from Paul Groes, Director Utility Markets, ICE Endex.
Clients include utilities, miners, trading houses, banks and exchanges worldwide.
Enrolment
US$3,500
per learner · lifetime access to this edition
- ✓ All 10 modules, slide decks and case studies
- ✓ Trading simulations and calculators
- ✓ Live sessions and recordings
- ✓ Q&A with the instructor
- ✓ 16.5-hour CPD certificate
Team or corporate seats? Ask us for an invite code covering your whole desk.
Training a whole desk?
Perret Associates provides company codes for teams of traders, risk managers and analysts, with live sessions scheduled for your time zone.