TT^® Connect Blog

Geopolitical tensions, shifting global trade dynamics and uncertainty across energy markets have kept volatility high and made the trading environment increasingly challenging. Yet the Japanese power market continues to evolve and grow.  

At the center of this ecosystem is the Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM), which plays a critical role in supporting the development of Japan’s exchange-traded power futures market.   

With deep roots in Japan’s financial and commodity markets, TOCOM provides a marketplace designed around the needs of domestic participants while expanding its appeal to a broader community of energy traders.  

To better understand the opportunities and challenges facing Japan’s power futures market, we spoke with Takashi Ishizaki, Representative Director, President at TOCOM, about market growth, liquidity initiatives, technology adoption and the future of energy trading in Japan. 

If TT Connect revealed one thing, it’s that trading is increasingly complex, and attendees expect that complexity to accelerate.

More than 150 market participants gathered in London on September 29 for TT Connect: The Evolution of Execution to explore the forces reshaping global trading. Audience polling throughout the event provided a unique snapshot of how market participants are thinking about these changes and where they see the industry headed next.

For years, FX has occupied an unusual position on the trading desk. For some firms, particularly macro and systematic investors, currencies are an important source of alpha. But for many others, FX is a necessary consequence of investing across global markets—an exposure to manage rather than a strategy to pursue. 

Prediction markets have generally been left out of most trading strategies, but that is rapidly changing. Over the past year, event contracts have become increasingly popular and are starting to be integrated into the systems that global institutions already use. 

Demand for raw computing power, or “compute,” has kept pace with, and in some cases outstripped, the rapid growth of AI. That has created a new source of volatility, and with it, a new source of investment. The financialization of the chips that power AI’s LLMs means that the graphics processing unit (GPU) is on its way to becoming a mainstream trading opportunity. The hardware itself stays physical, but by hedging the price and time of its rental, firms can turn an unpredictable cost into a manageable one: classic financial risk transfer.