Home Commodity Trader Resume template
Commodity Trader resume template
A clean starting structure with example content grounded in what commodity traders actually do day to day, not generic filler. Download and replace the bracketed placeholders with your own details.
Which resume format should you use?
Reverse chronological
You have a steady work history. This is the format almost every recruiter and ATS expects by default.
Functional
You're changing fields or have gaps in your employment. Leads with skills rather than a job-by-job timeline.
Combination
You're early career or have worked consistently but for only a few employers. Blends a skills summary with a shorter chronological history.
This template uses the reverse chronological format: the one most commodity traders should default to, since most Australian recruiters and ATS software expect it.
Professional summary
Commodity trader who reads supply and demand signals across physical and derivative markets and manages positions within strict risk limits. Comfortable on Bloomberg Terminal and Reuters Eikon, with modelling in Excel/VBA and Python, and a disciplined approach to trade reconciliation and benchmark reporting. Works across energy, metals or agricultural markets, translating weather, shipping and harvest data into trades that respect internal controls.
Key skills
- Financial analysis and modelling
- Risk and internal controls
- Data analysis
- Economic modelling
- Bloomberg Terminal
- Reuters Eikon
- Excel/VBA
- Trading platforms (CME, ICE, LME, ASX 24)
- Python and R for analytics
- Trade reconciliation and mark-to-market
- Futures, options and spot market execution
- Supply and demand forecasting
Experience: example bullet points
- Monitored Bloomberg Terminal and Reuters Eikon feeds to identify price moves across spot, futures and options markets, and placed orders before the opportunity passed.
- Read weather forecasts, harvest reports and shipping data for covered commodities, adjusting positions ahead of events that could move prices within minutes.
- Checked proposed trades against internal limits and risk controls, escalating any breach risk to the desk head before approval.
- Reconciled the day's trades and compared performance against the relevant benchmark, producing a short written summary for the following morning's meeting.
- Built an Excel/VBA tool to automate mark-to-market checks, reducing manual reconciliation time and cutting keying errors.
- Worked with risk and operations teams to resolve settlement queries, keeping the desk within ASIC market integrity and internal compliance requirements.
Education
Bachelor degree in commerce, finance, economics or a related field is the typical entry path, with some traders adding a postgraduate qualification such as a Master of Finance or the CFA program.
Keywords an ATS is likely to scan for
Applicant tracking systems match your resume against terms in the job ad before a person ever sees it. Only include the ones that actually apply to your experience, but if a term below matches something you've done, use the same wording the job ad uses.
- Commodity trading
- Derivatives
- Futures
- Options
- Spot market
- Hedging
- Risk limits
- Value at Risk (VaR)
- Mark-to-market
- Trade reconciliation
- Bloomberg Terminal
- Reuters Eikon
- Excel/VBA
- Python
- R
- CME
- ICE
- LME
- ASX 24
- ASIC
- Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL)
- Corporations Act 2001
- RG 146
- AFMA
- CFA
- Financial modelling
- Economic modelling
- Supply and demand analysis
Getting past ATS screening
- Match the specific skills, certifications and terms used in the job ad, not just your own wording for the same thing.
- Keep formatting simple: no tables, text boxes, columns, headers/footers or graphics. Parsers frequently drop content placed in these.
- Submit as .docx or PDF unless the job ad specifies otherwise.
- Use standard section headings (Experience, Education, Skills) rather than creative alternatives.
- List your core skills and technical competencies in their own section so a keyword scan can find them instantly.
This is a starting point, not a guarantee of interviews. Tailor every bullet point to your own real experience and the specific job ad.