Light Sweet Crude Oil Futures Futures

For traders, the crude oil market can offer many opportunities. Whether you are directly investing in energy markets or through equities, many portfolios are touched in some way by the price of crude.

West Texas Intermediate, (WTI) or light sweet crude is stored and distributed in Cushing, Oklahoma and has long been a benchmark for oil prices. Its counterpart, Brent crude, comes from the North Sea region and represents prices in Europe, Asia, Africa and Middle East.

Crude oil is often thought of as a commodity, but it also has been considered as a currency and economic barometer.  It’s a volatile market, subject to swift price swings due to geopolitical, production and weather events.

WTI is a deep and liquid energy market that trades nearly 24 hours per day making it an efficient market to get into and out of.  You don’t get that in an ETF product. It’s also relatively straightforward as a futures or options product, which is not always the case in trying to determine the strategy or costs of an ETF. Energy futures offer multiple ways to diversify ones portfolio.