From Professional Poker to AI-Powered Power Trading | Christian Togsverd, Tilde Energy Trading

For Episode 50 of the NordSearch Podcast, Patrick Reynolds is joined by Christian Togsverd, Co-founder & CEO of Tilde Energy Trading.Christian has one of the most unusual backgrounds in European power trading. Before entering energy markets, he was a professional poker player, competing at the World Series of Poker and learning first-hand about risk, expected value and decision-making under uncertainty.He went on to build experience across gas, carbon, quantitative trading and HFT before co-founding Tilde Energy Trading — a new systematic trading firm looking to combine the best of the Danish power trading model with techniques from the HFT and proprietary trading world.In this episode, Patrick and Christian discuss:• The lessons professional poker can teach traders about risk and decision-making• Christian's journey from poker and sports betting into quantitative trading• The differences between Danish power trading and HFT-style trading• Why competition is pushing intraday power towards continuous markets and market making• Why execution is becoming increasingly important• How Tilde is building a highly automated, systematic trading business• How AI allows a small trading firm to operate with significantly more leverage• Using AI for infrastructure, research, operations and alpha generation• Why AI alone isn't enough to build profitable trading strategies• The danger of overfitting AI-generated strategies• How Tilde thinks about AI model and token costs• Cloud infrastructure versus on-premise systems• Tilde's ambitions across power, gas and derivatives• Building a collaborative, high-performance trading cultureChristian also explains why Tilde believes the current generation of AI tools creates an enormous advantage for a startup: allowing a small team to build infrastructure, automate operational work and iterate on trading ideas far faster than would previously have been possible.A fascinating conversation on where quantitative power trading is heading and a fitting guest for Episode 50 of the NordSearch Podcast.