After a bumper year and with bloated bonus payouts on the cards, are swathes of commodities traders set to retire?

Thanks to generous employee shareholder schemes at independent trading houses, the Financial Times this week suggested newly enriched employees may decide to stop working. Graham Sharp, head of oil trading at Trafigura, told the paper imminent retirement was “an industry wide problem.”

However, recruiters appear less convinced that mass migration of wealthy commodities traders to golf courses and the Côte D’Azur is on the cards.

Trish Collins, managing director of commodities-focused search firm Exchange Consulting, says there are still opportunities for further wealth creation and career development in the industry.

“I think it is unlikely that we will see a huge amount of drift towards retirement in the near future,” she reflects. “The outlook for commodity markets is still good and despite heavy losses by some hedge funds and the impact this may have on the markets in the coming weeks, commodities are still an exciting place to be.”

Morgan Stanley this week said its commodities-trading business was very strong, particularly in electricity, oil and gas.