We are one of the largest alternative investment managers in the commodities markets. Our investments are based on our deep understanding of commodity market fundamentals. We express our investment views through financial derivatives, physical supply and offtake, and financing.
Founding date
Investment professionals
As of September 2024
Commodities have undergone an information revolution. From ship tracking to oil storage levels and crop yields, more data on supply, demand, storage and transport is available than ever before. Commodity markets are more globally connected: natural gas markets impact fertilizer production, agricultural markets impact gasoline production.
Understanding these dynamics with the goal of delivering consistent investment returns presents a set of incredible opportunities and complex challenges. We bring together exceptional people to do just that. We combine specialist domain expertise with advanced modeling techniques to solve problems that others deem unsolvable.
We emphasize depth over breadth of understanding, modeling markets at the deepest level of granularity. Using a large and growing array of diverse data sources, we run these models in a fast and flexible manner against thousands of assumptions and scenarios to explore our investment hypotheses.
Our investment technology underpins every aspect of our process. Our engineers drive the ingestion of data, the distributed computation of our scenarios and our trade execution algorithms. Many are embedded within our investment teams and focus on specific product types. Others provide robust environments and tooling for our global strategy.
The team’s culture emphasizes collaboration, rigor and debate. Some of our hardest problems span multiple commodities and geographies. We collaborate across investment teams to solve them together. In turn, we make better-informed decisions.
This model drives our growth, and today are one of the largest alternative investment managers in the commodities markets.
Dedicated engineers
Average amount of data ingested and processed daily
We seek out diverse talent who excel in their fields, focusing on those who can apply academic or industrial expertise to market challenges. Our teams have a passion for solving complex problems with tangible, real-world impact.
In keeping with our focus on depth over breadth, we seek out professionals with backgrounds relevant to our markets and investment process, ranging from traditional investing backgrounds to specialized fields such as meteorology, chemical engineering, unconventional gas production and high-performance computing.
Citadel Energy Marketing (CEM) is a unique part of our strategy. Founded in 2014, CEM helps energy producers and consumers across North America manage their commodity and funding risks in markets including natural gas, power, environmental products and weather.
In natural gas, CEM is one of the largest physical shippers in North America and helps more than 400 clients meet their energy needs.
In power, CEM helps utilities navigate the energy transition by supporting the financing and operation of renewable and natural gas-fired assets across the U.S.
Sebastian Barrack Head of Commodities
Sebastian Barrack joined Citadel in 2017 as Head of Commodities, with the vision to make Citadel one of the most consequential investors in the commodities market. He continues to pursue his vision today, driven by a team of experienced risk-takers and subject-matter experts. Seb also serves on Citadel’s Portfolio Committee.
Prior to joining Citadel, Seb headed multiple different commodity divisions at Macquarie Group Limited. Over 21 years there he built and ran businesses in every major market across Asia, Europe and the Americas.
He received his bachelor’s degree from Australian National University.
“We promote according to accomplishments and skill, and we accelerate the path for the people who are here.” Sebastian Barrack, Head of Commodities, explains the opportunities for rapid career growth at Citadel.
Hear from Sebastian