Oil futures are one of the most widely traded futures contracts around the world, and the two largest exchanges are both in the US, namely the New York Mercantile Exchange ( NYMEX) which is now owned by the CME group, and the Intercontinental Exchange ( ICE). The two most widely traded oil futures contracts are the WTI or West Texas Intermediate, and the Nort Sea Brent Crude contract, and both of these exchanges trade what is called the light sweet crude oil contract, with an underlying contract of 1,000 barrels of oil. These two contracts differ from one another in that the Nymex WTI contract can be settled by a physical delivery of the underlying oil which requires delivery into the main oil depot in the US at Cushing in Oklahoma, whilst the ICE Brent crude oil futures contract is a cash settled contract only, and therefore more suitable for speculators who are not interested in physical delivery.
In the last two years crude oil has surged in price to over $170 per barrel, only to fall just as quickly back below $35 per barrel, and in the last few months has recovered to currently trade around $75 per barrel once again. In the longer term, the outlook for crude oil remains bullish of course, and we will no doubt see crude oil futures trading back above $100 in the next few months once again. You can follow my daily analysis for crude oil by following the link here and below is a live the chart for the latest spot oil price.
