Journal
Three questions every metals assessment should answer before the walkthrough
If a copper or aluminium brief cannot answer these questions plainly, it is not ready for the trading desk.
Base metals assessments fail quietly when they deliver elegant charts and vague conclusions. Before a walkthrough, we test the draft against three questions that procurement and trading both understand.
1. What would make us wrong within thirty days?
If the brief cannot name a falsifier, it is a story, not an assessment. Write the checkpoint in operational language: arrivals, cancellations, or spread behaviour you can observe.
2. Which cost layer is doing the work?
Is the recommendation driven by the metal, the premium, the freight, or the currency? Mixing them without labels creates false confidence when only one layer moves.
3. Who must act, and by when?
An assessment that never names a decision owner becomes a PDF that sits unread. We end packs with a short list of actions for the desk and for sponsors — including the valid action of waiting.