Sebastian

Why did you come to work at DC Energy?
I have a background in computer engineering and wanted a job that would let me apply that skill set to investment problems. At the same time, I wanted to have involvement with the trading process itself and not be relegated to a glorified programming position. I was also impressed with DCE's consistent track record and its ability to turn people without trading experience into successful investment professionals. The firm's lack of outside investors enables management to take a longer-term view of my work and the markets, rather than being focused too intently on short-term results.

What is a workday like for you?
I work in one of the Virtual Energy groups, trading on the spread between day-ahead and real-time electricity prices. My team trades every day, so my day is structured around trading activities. I start out in the trading room assisting with our trade operations for around two hours, and spend some time looking over results and our cleared positions later in the afternoon. I spend the rest of my time working on longer-term activities such as developing new trading strategies or building system infrastructure to expand our computational and analytical capabilities.

What is your favorite part of your job?
My favorite activity is working on strategy development, going from building a model of a system to creating a strategy around that model and then optimizing it. I was able to get started on developing my own strategy almost as soon as I started here, which I think is quite unique to DCE - I wouldn't have gotten a similar opportunity at the other firms I was considering for much longer.

What do you do outside of work?
I spend my weekends sampling the cultural and culinary wonders of the DC area with my wife (and occasionally our dogs). We do a lot of hiking in the area and take a trekking trip to somewhere further away a couple of times a year. The last big one was a week in Yosemite near the end of last year and we will be spending two weeks in the Patagonian Andes at the end of this year.

What have you learned at DCE that you were surprised to learn but are glad you did?
The complexity of the power markets was pretty surprising to me. I have a newfound appreciation for the art and science of market design and the effort that goes into ensuring that markets send appropriate price signals to participants. I was also surprised by the degree to which the markets themselves are still evolving in terms of everything from the products that can be traded to the way the grid is modeled. This dynamism requires that DC Energy be constantly evolving as well, which provides numerous opportunities to tackle new problems.