Help, how to buy crude oil?

First of all, it briefly introduces crude oil futures and its representatives.

Crude oil futures is a contract between buyers and sellers. A contract is an agreement and agreement that the buyer will buy crude oil from the seller at a certain price (spot price) in the future (contract expiration date). For example, a futures contract can be purchased at a price of 95 dollars per barrel, and the delivery period is three months. After three months, regardless of the actual price of crude oil at that time, Everyone is obliged to get crude oil at 95 dollars per barrel (or settle in cash).

You can see how you can gain or lose by buying crude oil futures. If you buy futures at 95 dollars per barrel, but the price at delivery is 92 dollars, you will lose 3 dollars per barrel, because it is basically more. Of course, if the spot price of crude oil at delivery is 98 dollars, you can earn 3 dollars per barrel.

Actually, In the case of soaring oil prices and damage to other major airlines, locking crude oil contracts at a lower price will help Southwest Airlines save millions of dollars.

Where can I find crude oil futures

the New York Mercantile Exchange

the New York Mercantile Exchange is a commodity futures exchange operated by Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group outside Chicago (the New York Mercantile Exchange is headquartered in new york, There are offices in the world). the New York Mercantile Exchange crude oil futures trading code is cl, which gives the buyer the control of 1 barrels of crude oil, using the benchmark of West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil (WTI). The crude oil contract sold in the New York Mercantile Exchange can be settled by spot (transporting crude oil to the center of Cushing, Oklahoma) and cash. This usually happens.

Intercontinental Exchange

The Intercontinental Exchange is an exchange headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, mainly engaged in electronic trading of futures and other commodities. The crude oil sold through ICE uses Brent crude oil standard. The contract code is B, which controls 1 barrels of crude oil, despite the EFP option. However, it is mainly settled in cash.

The main difference between p>ICE and the New York Mercantile Exchange crude oil trading lies in the different standards. West Texas intermediates from the Midwest of the United States and the Gulf Coast are lighter and sweeter than most other major standards. Brent crude oil is a mixture of crude oil from the North Sea and the British coast.