Why Power Trading Is 10X Crazier Than Crypto ft. Cory Paddock | Open Interest | Ep.24

Paddock says power-market trading requires substantial firm-specific context, so neither a novice with capital nor access to LLMs alone is enough to trade successfully. GBE once expected new analysts to need roughly 16–18 months, including a full market cycle, to make calls, though recent training cases have been condensed to six to eight months.

The host describes U.S. power markets as opaque and less populated than equity markets, while Paddock argues that this limited accessibility helps make them alpha-rich for proprietary traders. He also says power-market design must reconcile physical power flows, production economics, and reliability priorities.

North America’s western, eastern, and Texas interconnections operate largely as separate grids, with few links between them; within the Eastern Interconnect, Paddock calls PJM the largest and most liquid market. He says the PJM West Hub combines nodes in western Pennsylvania and around Washington, DC, and roughly represents prices across PJM; he suggests the contracts’ mix of skill and chance may contribute to their trading appeal.

PJM’s balance-of-day product averages five-minute node prices from hour 8 through hour 23 on business days, so prices become known as the day progresses while remaining unknowns can leave room for intraday volatility. ElectronX’s individual-hour futures could attract more participants and give load and renewable-energy businesses more tailored hedges than trading an entire strip.