Course 13 of 20 · Freight and Shipping Desk Academy

Freight Indices, FFAs & Settlement

Stage C, Operator economics and market practice. Level 6 of 10.

Index construction and assessment, forward freight agreement mechanics, clearing, margining and index settlement against physical performance.

126 chapters · 11 modules · every chapter one 8 to 10 minute explainer · builds on: Course 04, Course 11, Course 12

Enrol or enquire See the 126 chapters
How a chapter is delivered

One chapter is one idea taken to the point of use

Each chapter covers one idea to the point where you can use it, and comes two ways: a narrated explainer, and a deep dive audio discussion of around thirty minutes that works the same material at depth.

Self-paced throughout, and the same chapters can be taught as a cohort. Chapters run in order: each one assumes only what the chapters before it taught, and capability belonging to a later course is named and deferred rather than half-covered.

Curriculum

11 modules · 126 chapters

Open any module for its full chapter list, in teaching order.

M0 The Number That Freight Paper Settles Against Ch 1-10
  1. The Number That Settles a Paper Freight Trade
  2. Assessment, Fixture and Index Kept Apart
  3. Who Publishes Freight Assessments and Under What Mandate
  4. Which Desks Depend on a Published Route Rate
  5. Why Freight Cannot Be Stored and What That Does to Paper
  6. Dry and Wet Paper Markets Side by Side
  7. The Vocabulary This Material Uses
  8. A Paper Position Is Not a Ship
  9. Why the Index Vessel Is Never Your Vessel
  10. What This Material Builds and Where It Stops
M1 The Route as a Specification Ch 11-22
  1. Reading a Route Definition Cold
  2. The Described Ship Inside a Dry Route
  3. The Described Ship Inside a Tanker Route
  4. Load and Discharge Ranges as Priced Geography
  5. Cargo Quantity and Tolerance Written Into a Route
  6. The Laycan and Prompt Assumption a Route Carries
  7. Voyage Routes Quoted in Dollars Per Tonne
  8. Timecharter Routes Quoted in Dollars Per Day
  9. Trip Routes, Round Voyages and the Ballast Leg Assumed
  10. Bunker Grade and Price Assumed Inside a Route
  11. When a Route Is Revised, Retired or Added
  12. What a Route Definition Deliberately Leaves Out
M2 The Panel and the Daily Assessment Ch 23-34
  1. Who Sits on a Reporting Panel and How They Get There
  2. What a Panellist Is Actually Asked to Submit
  3. The Reporting Deadline and the Market It Captures
  4. Averaging, Trimming and the Published Conclusion
  5. Assessing a Route on a Day With No Fixtures
  6. The Fixture Nobody Will Confirm
  7. Conflict of Interest on a Broking Panel
  8. Panel Turnover and the Continuity of a Series
  9. Governance, Oversight and Independent Review
  10. A Methodology Change While You Hold a Position
  11. A Corrected Print and the Cash Already Paid
  12. What a Daily Print Cannot Prove
M3 From Route Rates to Published Indices Ch 35-45
  1. Single Routes, Baskets and Composite Numbers
  2. The Timecharter Average Across Selected Routes
  3. Weightings and the Trade They Were Meant to Represent
  4. Converting a Voyage Assessment to a Daily Equivalent
  5. Index Points Against Dollars on Tanker Routes
  6. The Annual Schedule Revision and the Series It Breaks
  7. Rebasing, Splicing and the Comparability Trap
  8. Which Published Figures Are Tradeable and Which Are Not
  9. Reading a Daily Freight Index Report
  10. Two Providers Disagreeing About One Route
  11. An Index Suitability Check Before You Settle Against It
M4 The Forward Freight Agreement Ch 46-58
  1. What an FFA Is and What the Two Sides Agree
  2. Route and Period as the Only Two Coordinates
  3. Lot Size on a Daily Route
  4. Lot Size on a Cargo Route
  5. Contract Months, Quarters and Calendar Strips
  6. The Standard Terms a Freight Paper Trade Runs On
  7. Reading an FFA Confirmation Line by Line
  8. How a Freight Paper Trade Gets Done
  9. Where Freight Paper Liquidity Actually Sits
  10. Closing, Netting and Leaving a Freight Paper Position
  11. A Worked Trade From Intention to Confirmation
  12. What an FFA Does Not Give the Holder
  13. Options on Freight and Where They Belong
M5 Settling a Route Month Ch 59-69
  1. The Settlement Average Defined Precisely
  2. Which Days Count and Which Do Not
  3. Settling a Daily Route: the Arithmetic
  4. Settling a Tanker Route: Points, Flat Rate and Tonnage
  5. Decimals, Rounding and the Figure That Reaches the Invoice
  6. The Settlement Statement and When Cash Moves
  7. Settling a Quarter or a Year of Route Months
  8. A Settlement That Is Disputed
  9. When the Agreed Series Stops Being Published
  10. Paying a Freight Settlement Across Two Banking Calendars
  11. A Worked Settlement Month, End to End
M6 Clearing a Freight Paper Trade Ch 70-81
  1. Why Freight Paper Moved Into Clearing
  2. Novation: Who You Actually Owe After Registration
  3. Clearing Members, Clients and the Account You Trade In
  4. Give-Ups and the Broker Who Is Not Your Clearer
  5. Registration Deadlines and the Trade That Missed Them
  6. Open Interest and Position Reporting on a Route
  7. Position Limits and Accountability on Freight Routes
  8. Cleared and Bilateral Freight Paper Compared
  9. How a Clearing House Protects Itself
  10. A Clearing Member Failing While You Hold Positions
  11. The Fees a Cleared Freight Book Pays
  12. What Clearing Does Not Remove
M7 Margin on a Freight Paper Book Ch 82-93
  1. Why an Open Route Month Demands Cash Up Front
  2. Initial Margin on a Single Route Month
  3. Why a Capesize Month Costs More Than a Handysize Month
  4. Offsets Between Adjacent Months and Related Routes
  5. Variation Margin Against the Daily Mark
  6. The Mark on a Route With No Quoted Forward Price
  7. Eligible Collateral and the Haircut Applied
  8. An Intraday Call Against a Route That Gapped
  9. A Freight Rally Through a Sold Route Month
  10. Projecting the Call From an Open Freight Paper Book
  11. The Call That Arrives While the Ship Is Still at Sea
  12. A Position Closed Because the Cash Ran Out
M8 Bilateral Freight Paper and the Counterparty Ch 94-103
  1. The Bilateral FFA That Was Never Cleared
  2. The Master Agreement Behind a Bilateral Route Trade
  3. Credit Support, Thresholds and Collateral Between Two Names
  4. Assessing an FFA Counterparty on a Freight Desk
  5. Close-Out of a Bilateral Freight Position
  6. Novating a Bilateral Position to a New Name
  7. Moving an Uncleared Position Into Clearing
  8. Reporting Obligations on Freight Paper Trades
  9. A Counterparty Failure Worked Through
  10. Keeping Both Books in One Position Report
M9 Index Settlement Against Physical Performance Ch 104-116
  1. Setting the Settlement Figure Beside the Voyage Result
  2. The Average Against the Day You Fixed
  3. Your Ship Against the Described Ship
  4. Your Load Port Against the Route's Load Range
  5. The Bunker Assumption Against the Bunkers You Bought
  6. Demurrage, Waiting and the Days the Index Never Saw
  7. Commission, Address and the Net Figure
  8. A Dry Voyage Reconciled Against Its Route Month, Part One
  9. A Dry Voyage Reconciled Against Its Route Month, Part Two
  10. A Tanker Voyage Reconciled Against Its Route Month
  11. A Period Position Reconciled Against a Daily Route
  12. Recording the Gap So It Can Be Explained Later
  13. Where the Residue Is Managed Rather Than Explained
M10 A Month End to End and the Honest Limits Ch 117-126
  1. A Worked Month, Part One: The Position Taken
  2. A Worked Month, Part Two: Margin Through a Moving Market
  3. A Worked Month, Part Three: Settlement and Reconciliation
  4. The Same Month With the Route Suspended
  5. The Same Month With a Panel Under Pressure
  6. Manipulation Concerns and What Surveillance Can See
  7. Common Errors in Freight Paper Settlement
  8. What a Freight Index Cannot Tell You
  9. What Cash Settlement Cannot Do for a Freight Book
  10. Where the Freight Paper Threads Continue

The brochure gives each of these 126 chapters a paragraph on what it covers and what you can do once you have worked through it.

This is course 13 of twenty

It stands alone, and it is also the entry point to the Freight and Shipping Desk Academy pathway.

Enrol or enquire See the whole pathway