It's 3 a.m. Alex is trading electricity across Europe. And has been for 10 years.

What drives someone who takes responsibility for energy trading across 15 European countries in the middle of the night?

Alex knows the answer; he’s been living it for a decade. We sat down with him to talk about his day-to-day, what it means to own your work, what it takes to build a team across borders, and what a company culture looks like when most of your colleagues are hundreds of miles away.

It's well past Midnight

Alex is at his desk in Dresden, watching six screens – market data, price curves, system alerts. He has everything in view. His focus is absolute. He’s an energy trader at Optimax Energy. For ten years. Fully remote. Mostly at night. Our Nighttrader.

Alex didn’t take the conventional path into energy trading. After training as an electrician, going back to earn his A-levels, and studying industrial engineering in Leipzig, he found his way to Optimax and stayed.

What made him stay? The fast decisions. The deep dive into highly complex data. The constant back-and-forth between strategy and reaction.

What keeps him going? No two days are the same. At any moment, something can demand an immediate response – a price movement, a technical glitch, a market anomaly that shifts in seconds.

"The biggest motivation is the work itself. Every day can be completely different, and you need to be fully concentrated throughout your entire shift, even during the quieter stretches." 

- Alex, Energy Trader at Optimax Energy for 10 years 

The (European) Energy Market never sleeps - Neither does Optimax Energy

Energy trading is complex. Electricity is traded in real time on spot markets and exchanges, with direct consequences for prices and supply security. Traders monitor market movements, assess risks, and make split-second decisions that can move millions. 

Optimax Energy has been focused on power trading for over a decade. That means we operate across European energy markets with a team that is small, well-rehearsed, and highly autonomous. There are no long decision chains. If you spot a mistake, you act. If you see an opportunity, you take it. That’s exactly what makes this job magnetic for certain kinds of people.

"Demanding work on a self-directed basis. Resilience, but also the confidence to make your own calls - fast decisions, identifying problems and finding solutions at the same time." 

- Alex, on what this job really requires

Night Shifts are like a Box of Chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get. 

There are two kinds of nights. The normal ones, and the extraordinary ones. Normal nights begin with the shift handover: current events, active strategies, challenges for the hours ahead. Then comes the personal check – weather data, temperatures, the various trading agents and their settings. Alex also trades manually during the night, while simultaneously monitoring the automated strategies. In between: processing tickets, documenting improvements, working on internal tools, and ideas.

And then there are the other nights. Extreme cold snaps or heat waves, public holidays, and unexpected market events. Nights when prices spike, a lot needs to be traded manually, and the strategy has been aligned with the whole team beforehand. Nights you don’t forget, and that’s precisely the appeal: if you can keep a cool head in those moments and make the right calls, you know exactly why you do this job. 

Eight Traders . Four Countries . One Team

With a 70% remote rate spread across three locations – Germany, Bulgaria, and Italy – our trading department is anything but a conventional office setup.

What holds this team together isn’t the occasional coffee break. It’s rather clear structures, reliable communication channels, and a culture where remote isn’t seen as a limitation but as a natural way of working, with the highest possible degree of personal responsibility.

Shift handovers happen via Slack, and key decisions are made through team meetings. In critical situations, there’s a direct line – around the clock – to colleagues in IT, analysis, and trading, as well as to leadership. It works because everyone knows what to do and because trust doesn’t require a desk in the same building.

Christmas Parties

Team Culture at a Distance 

Alex has never been based permanently at Optimax HQ in Leipzig, and yet he describes the atmosphere at the company as something he genuinely feels. Even from a distance. Even at three in the morning. The shared events, the cohesion within the team – it comes through, even across hundreds of kilometres.

And when he looks back on ten years, it’s not the big numbers that stay with him – it’s the moments. The first trades that really worked. Discovering a market indicator that turned out to be a real edge. The nights when things went sideways and the conversations with colleagues that followed, the kind where real learning happens.

"The nights where things didn't go well - but where then analysed together with colleagues and built upon - those stay with me just as much as the successes." 

- Alex reflecting on 10 years of trading at Optimax 

At the same time, we know: remote culture doesn’t run itself. Not being in the office means you need more than good tools and a direct line to leadership. You need to feel like you genuinely belong. And we know that as a company, we have to keep working at this – we don’t want to rely solely on the fact that our team routines are well-established. We want to give our remote colleagues a working environment that truly meets their needs.

A final Word from Alex, for Anyone ready to take on the Challenge

This job isn’t for everyone. It takes independence, decisiveness, and the willingness to be sharp when Europe is asleep. It also takes a lifestyle that isn’t easy to maintain, and people around you who are willing to live by that rhythm too.

"If you enjoy working independently, being your own boss for the most part and making decisions in seconds - this job is a great fit." 

- Alex, on what turns this job into a calling 

And yet – or maybe because of all this – Alex has been with Optimax for 10 years. Not because he has to be, but because this job fits him. His life, his rhythm, and above all, his way of thinking and pushing himself every single day.

Maybe the life of an energy trader fits you, too.

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