Crude oil price-linked ETF?

Question

Are there options available to retail investor to go long on crude oil price? Ideally, a liquid "oil price index" ETF that would go up or down in sync with the price of crude.A simple google search shows several funds with such goals (e.g., on https://etfdb.com/themes/long-crude-oil-etfs/ ), but with different performance over the same time period (both daily and YTD), which looks suspicious.

pdovy · Accepted Answer

USO is probably the biggest, most liquid one available in the US.
Almost all of these funds will hold some combination of cash, short term debt and oil futures, with the ratios depending on their target leverage.
Performance between them will vary depending on, among other things: whether or not the ETF is levered, which particular type of crude it's tracking, it's time horizon, and how effective the fund managers are at rolling their futures holdings.
NOT investment advice. Commodities are fickle.

wimgz · Answer

In times of cheap oil prices, the forward curve is often in contango.
That means that the price for a prompt delivery is cheaper than a delivery in the future. So if you go long crude with futures, each month you have to roll your contracts before they expire, and buy a more expensive one. So you end up paying a premium.
Kinda like if you want to store oil to speculate, you have to pay for storage.
You might as well buy a basket of oil majors stocks, which are a pure play on oil prices

anonu · Answer

Good list is available here:https://pages.etflogic.io/?pg=cocroi
Note that there are no ETFs that actually hold barrels of oil. USO holds front month futures. So you're also paying a role yield.
Consider equity ETFs like XLE which can provide a beta to crude if you're looking to catch a falling knife

lurquer · Answer

If there was a security that perfectly tracked the price of a commodity, why would anyone invest in the commodity?
The commodity, after all, has actual costs (such as storage, insurance, and transport.)
That is, if you were to buy 10,000 barrels of oil, there will be s cost for you to store it. If that cost was absent from the mythical intangible instrument that perfectly tracked oil, why would you or anyone else buy the real thing for investment purposes?
Buying a 'synthetic' commodity -- that is, and instruments thst strives to match the commodities price -- will force you to give up something; maybe the amplitude of the swings in price, or a hefty chunk for transaction costs, or other such things. (I believe 'backwardation' and 'contsngo' are the terms for the factors that prevent a collection of future contract perfectly tracking the percentage delta spot price of the underlying commodity.)

throwaway3157 · Answer

Check out BNO. It may be what you're looking for

bigdict · Answer

You could do oil futures/options or basket of oil company stocks.

Crude oil price-linked ETF?

Good list is available here:https://pages.etflogic.io/?pg=cocroiNote that there are no ETFs that actually hold barrels of oil. USO holds front month futures. So you're also paying a role yield.Consider equity ETFs like XLE which can provide a beta to crude if you're looking to catch a falling knife

Check out BNO. It may be what you're looking for

You could do oil futures/options or basket of oil company stocks.