Commercial auctions
The Auctionologies team pioneered the use of rapid clock auctions in natural gas, petrochemical and other midstream markets. Some of its auction designs have been in continuous use for over 20 years.
The team has managed individual offerings valued at $1 million to $100 million and prepared hundreds of bidders through mock auctions.
Team
Dr David Moshal, Founder
Over a 27-year career, he has conducted hundreds of high-stakes auctions worth over $4 billion. He combines commercial auction design with software development for live bidding and experimental economics.
Selected experience
2001–2006
Texas electricity capacity and CapTrades
CapTrades held quarterly auctions for electricity generation capacity in Texas. He served as chief technology officer of the company that supplied its auction technology. In the first auction, in September 2001, Reliant and TXU sold 2.9 GW of capacity across 48 product classes.
2001
David was professionally recognized in InfoWorld's list of USA Top 100 Chief Technology Officers.
2003–2007
Monthly ethylene and propylene auctions
Working with Williams, he conducted the first successful spot ethylene auctions and demonstrated the feasibility of a monthly spot market. Typical auctions offered 10–15 million pounds of ethylene per month in one- to three-month strips.
His ethylene and propylene auction customers included:
- Williams Olefins, L.L.C.
- Westlake Chemical Corporation
- Dow Hydrocarbons and Resources, Inc.
- Koch Supply & Trading, LP
- Enterprise Products Operating L.P.
2005–present
Natural gas storage and transportation auctions
He has conducted hundreds of FERC-regulated natural gas storage and transportation auctions. For each pipeline, he adapts his auction software to the terms of its existing FERC tariff.
His pipeline and storage work has included:
- Boardwalk Pipelines
- Tallgrass Energy
- Williams
- Gulf South Pipeline
- Gulf Crossing Pipeline
- Texas Gas Transmission
- NiSource
- Kinder Morgan
2006–2008
Bidder software for US spectrum auctions
From 2006 to 2008, David produced a fully functional replica of the FCC spectrum auction software design, and analytics software, to help bidders prepare for and monitor major US spectrum auctions, including AWS Auction 66 ($13.9 billion) and the 700 MHz Auction 73 ($19.1 billion).
Software users included:
- Time Warner
- Comcast
- Verizon
- Vulcan Ventures (Paul Allen)
- MetroPCS
- USCellular
- Cavalier
2006–2007
Auction research software
David was the sole developer of the auction research platform Paul Milgrom (2020 Nobel laureate in economics) used at Stanford University to compare combinatorial clock auctions (CCA), simultaneous multiple-round auctions (SMR) and sealed-bid auctions.
This research influenced the design of multibillion-dollar FCC spectrum auctions.
Publication from this research: John H. Kagel, Yuanchuan Lien and Paul Milgrom (2010), Ascending Prices and Package Bidding: A Theoretical and Experimental Analysis, American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 2(3), 160–185.
2008–present
Polyethylene and resin railcar auctions
The polyethylene and polypropylene auctions he designed for INEOS have been running continuously for almost 20 years.
2009–2010
Research collaborations and Arlington Economics
David provided Vernon Smith (2002 Nobel laureate in economics), David Porter and Stephen Rassenti with software for auction design experiments at Chapman University. He also collaborated with their consulting group, Arlington Economics.
2010–present
Private auction engagements
He has conducted numerous high-stakes auctions for parties who prefer to keep their auctions private. These engagements span natural gas liquids (NGLs), natural gas storage and transportation, and other markets.