NordSearch Podcast

How has Yggdrasil become one of Europe's most profitable power trading firms with fewer than 50 employees?Two years after his first appearance on the NordSearch Podcast, Lars Weber, Partner at Yggdrasil, returns to discuss the firm's latest financial results, expansion into new markets and evolving approach to power trading.With approximately €65 million in annual EBIT, Yggdrasil continues to demonstrate the power of automation, systematic trading and a lean operating model.In this episode, we discuss:Yggdrasil's financial performance: How the firm generated approximately DKK 480m in EBIT despite challenging market conditions.Automation and profitability: How Yggdrasil operates with fewer than 50 employees and why it doesn't pay traditional annual bonuses.Expanding into futures trading: Why Yggdrasil has moved beyond day-ahead and intraday markets and started trading further up the curve.Battery optimisation: Why Lars believes managing wind farms across ten countries is easier than managing batteries, and whether the economics of battery optimisation still make sense.AI in power trading: How Yggdrasil uses AI agents, whether AI should generate trading strategies and why the firm aims to move from idea to live trading in hours.Japanese power markets: What Yggdrasil has learned from entering Japan, why local relationships matter and how competition is developing.Asset management: Yggdrasil's expansion into managing renewable assets across Finland, Sweden and Germany.We also explore how geopolitical events are changing European power markets, why Denmark has become a global leader in short-term power trading and what the future could look like for systematic energy trading.A fascinating conversation with one of the industry's leading voices.About the NordSearch PodcastThe NordSearch Podcast brings together leaders from the global power trading industry to discuss trading strategies, technology, market developments and the people building the industry's most successful businesses.Subscribe for more conversations with leaders across Energy Trading, Quantitative Trading and Commodity Markets.

What makes Australia's electricity market different from Europe, and where are the biggest opportunities for power trading firms?In this episode of the NordSearch Podcast, Patrick Reynolds speaks with Andrew Koscharsky, Head of Australia at InCommodities, about the evolution of Australian power trading and the firm's expansion across Asia-Pacific.Andrew discusses the unique characteristics of Australia's five-minute electricity market, the growth of battery trading and why automated optimisation strategies still require human judgement.They also explore how geopolitical events and Donald Trump's tweets influence European power markets compared with Australia, the potential impact of AI data centres on electricity demand, and why more international quantitative trading firms haven't entered the Australian market.The conversation also covers the balance between quantitative models and fundamental trading expertise, building high-performing trading teams and the opportunities emerging in Japan and other Asian electricity markets.A fascinating discussion on the future of power trading in Australia and the wider Asia-Pacific region.

After 50+ conversations with some of the leading traders, founders, CEOs and Heads of Trading in the power markets, the NordSearch Podcast is doing something different.In this special solo episode, NordSearch founder Patrick Reynolds reflects on the biggest lessons and recurring themes from the first 50 episodes of the podcast.The episode explores what separates the best power traders, where sustainable trading edge really comes from, and how the role of the trader is evolving as power markets become increasingly systematic.It also covers the rise of algo trading and AI, the relationship between discretionary and systematic trading, why human judgement still matters, and what NordSearch has learned about building successful trading teams and cultures.Topics include:- What makes a great power trader?- Where does sustainable trading edge come from?- Is discretionary trading being replaced by algorithms?- How is AI actually being used in power trading?- What will the trader of the future look like?- What does it take to build a successful algo trading desk?- What separates the highest-performing trading teams?One theme runs throughout the episode: edge isn’t static.Markets change. Technology changes. Competition changes. Strategies become crowded.The question isn’t simply where does your edge come from today?It’s why will that edge still exist tomorrow?Three years. 50+ episodes. One episode bringing together the biggest lessons from leaders across the power trading industry.

European intraday power markets are becoming faster, more automated and increasingly interconnected — but is the underlying market infrastructure keeping up?In this episode, Patrick Reynolds speaks with Vincent Thevenin, Market Expert at Montel, about the evolution of European short-term power trading.Drawing on experience across TSOs, physical trading and market design, Vincent discusses the growing challenges facing XBID and continuous intraday trading as algorithmic and higher-frequency activity increases.They explore the role of quant and HFT firms, the liquidity they bring to European power markets, and the infrastructure challenges this creates for TSOs and exchanges.The conversation also covers market coupling and cross-border capacity, passive balancing, data transparency, 5-minute products, renewable integration, and how intraday trading has evolved from predominantly manual trading towards today's highly automated market.Vincent also shares his experience of the early days of automated power trading at 50Hertz and why the next stage of European market design could have significant implications for traders.

For Episode 50 of the NordSearch Podcast, Patrick Reynolds is joined by Christian Togsverd, Co-founder & CEO of Tilde Energy Trading.Christian has one of the most unusual backgrounds in European power trading. Before entering energy markets, he was a professional poker player, competing at the World Series of Poker and learning first-hand about risk, expected value and decision-making under uncertainty.He went on to build experience across gas, carbon, quantitative trading and HFT before co-founding Tilde Energy Trading — a new systematic trading firm looking to combine the best of the Danish power trading model with techniques from the HFT and proprietary trading world.In this episode, Patrick and Christian discuss:• The lessons professional poker can teach traders about risk and decision-making• Christian's journey from poker and sports betting into quantitative trading• The differences between Danish power trading and HFT-style trading• Why competition is pushing intraday power towards continuous markets and market making• Why execution is becoming increasingly important• How Tilde is building a highly automated, systematic trading business• How AI allows a small trading firm to operate with significantly more leverage• Using AI for infrastructure, research, operations and alpha generation• Why AI alone isn't enough to build profitable trading strategies• The danger of overfitting AI-generated strategies• How Tilde thinks about AI model and token costs• Cloud infrastructure versus on-premise systems• Tilde's ambitions across power, gas and derivatives• Building a collaborative, high-performance trading cultureChristian also explains why Tilde believes the current generation of AI tools creates an enormous advantage for a startup: allowing a small team to build infrastructure, automate operational work and iterate on trading ideas far faster than would previously have been possible.A fascinating conversation on where quantitative power trading is heading and a fitting guest for Episode 50 of the NordSearch Podcast.

Patrick Reynolds speaks with Christian Montes from BD Energy about building AI-driven power trading strategies, expanding into US markets, and why finding an edge in Europe has become increasingly difficult.The conversation covers machine learning, quantitative research, risk management, AI agents, market efficiency, and what the future of algorithmic power trading could look like.

Returning guest Casper Sønderby, CEO & Co-Founder of twig, joins the NordSearch Podcast to discuss how AI is reshaping power trading.We cover twig's expansion across Europe, the US and Japan, why they prioritise hiring machine learning engineers over traditional traders, their investment in an AI data centre, and why execution is becoming the industry's biggest competitive advantage.

In this episode, we go behind the scenes at MFT Energy, a company that has transformed from a Danish startup into a global Energy Trading powerhouse . Based in the heart of Aarhus often called the Energy Valley MFT Energy is proving that a unique culture and a bold partnership model can disrupt the global markets.CEO and Partner Bo Palmgren explains how MFT scales its operations across New York, Singapore, Istanbul, and beyond. We discuss the logistics of the "24/7 virtual handover," why they prioritize "Grit" over pure intellect, and how Aarhus became the global epicenter for energy talent.Inside this episode:The Energy Valley Advantage: Why Aarhus is the perfect ecosystem for energy trading.Going Global: The challenges of opening offices in Singapore and the US.The Ownership Mindset: How MFT’s partner model creates "entrepreneurs, not employees."The 24/7 Life: Managing a global business without burning out the team.

AI is driving a massive surge in power demand but there’s one major problem: the grid isn’t ready.In this episode, Patrick Reynolds sits down with Stephan Dinser (Head of Industry Origination at Vattenfall) to break down how the energy market is changing and why infrastructure, not generation, could be the biggest bottleneck for the future of AI.They explore how corporate power purchase agreements (CPPAs) are evolving into critical long-term hedging tools, why energy costs are putting Europe at a disadvantage, and how increasing volatility is reshaping the way businesses think about power.This conversation connects AI, energy, and global competitiveness and what it means for the future of power markets.

“There should be no reason that a trader understands the market better than a machine that knows all the rules.”Patrick speaks with Jacob Hansen, CEO & Co-founder of Aro Inc, about building an AI-first intraday power trading company from scratch.Coming from a software and data background including helping scale Nordic challenger bank Luna from 13 to 700 people. Jacob shares how Aro is approaching power trading differently from traditional trading firms.They discuss fully automated trading infrastructure, AI-assisted strategy research, rapid deployment of new trading strategies, and why small, highly technical teams may have an advantage over larger incumbents.One particularly interesting insight from the conversation was Aro’s internal goal of eventually getting from:idea to live strategy in production within one day.Jacob also explains why they believe AI agents could soon be capable of developing viable trading strategies themselves with humans remaining responsible for validation and risk management.A fascinating conversation on the future of intraday power trading, automation, AI, and how new entrants are challenging the traditional energy trading model.A must-listen for professionals in power trading, algorithmic trading, AI, and energy markets.