Publishing Schedule Update and Formatting Update
After a few months of testing a new format with clients, here are some updates about my intended process.
New Format
I am thankful and surprised to see people keep subscribing. The ranks have almost doubled in the last six months, even though I haven’t posted anything. Writing each commentary takes substantial time and resources, so I took some time to redesign the reports and focus on paying clients.
Monthly Commentary
On a monthly basis, I publish a note that will follow the same tone as my Substack history but has been reorganized into a slide format that keeps it brief without sacrificing depth. Each monthly update is 3-5 slides long:
Title page, with three one-sentence bullets that summarize the entire deck.
Exec summary that expands those bullets into 1-2 paragraphs.
1 slide for each bullet that expresses the detail and shares two charts.
A final summary slide with the three key takeaways.
These monthly notes set the basis for the month and let us share our view of what is driving the market. Our client calls are based on this fundamental analysis and include trading strategy discussions.
Weekly Update
We follow these each week with a 1-page update.
Title page, with three one-sentence bullets to summarize the update.
One page that contains:
One paragraph summary of the monthly opinion.
One paragraph summary of what happened in the recent week.
2-3 paragraphs assessing the market drivers for the week.
We look at what we said at the beginning of the month, intentionally assess what was right/wrong, and monitor what’s changed. We hope it resembles a weekly trading call or meeting with your analyst.
I produce this report series for jet fuel, diesel, natural gas, and crude oil. Coming soon: gasoline and LPG/NGLs. Every report has regional variation when necessary and always for clients to address their basis risk. With the help of a marketing design consultant, the format has been updated, and we think you’ll appreciate it. Moreso, I hope you’ll consider becoming a paid subscriber.
Publishing Schedule
Blue Lacy’s primary business is supporting analysis and commodity hedging. Our clients rely on us for the type of analysis in the reports, as well as to advise them on markets, with a levelheaded objective view that is as important as ever given the uncertainty in the market. The complete monthly and weekly reports will be reserved for paying clients. That means the Substack schedule is changing. I’ll post weekly “Three Point Summaries,” which used to serve as the stack’s introduction and will be visible to all subscribers.
For paid subscribers who sign up before May 15, I’ll share a weekly update in the same format as the weekly reports that clients see. We anticipate rotating among the various products so paid Substack subscribers can get a flavor of the breadth of the work and see how our views overlap or differ. The attached example is one of our weekly NG notes from March, an example of our weekly notes that we expect to provide paid subscribers.
I appreciate your support over the last four years. Developing a voice people will read has helped Blue Lacy refine the products we provide to clients. I hope you’ll join us in the next phase as a paid subscriber or, better yet, as a client. If anything, the last four years should have shown that you can no longer rely on the typical narrative-driven research that worked in the pre-pandemic era. I want our work to be a better guide, consistently objective and skeptical of the narrative.
