You might have heard some of your friends talk about trading crude oil futures. You must have been surprised because many people think that trading crude oil futures is only for the hedge funds or really wealthy people. Well, you can trade crude oil futures if you want to. But don’t do it without getting a good training.
You should be aware of the power of crude oil in the global economy. Crude oil trades around the world. Crude oil is one of the most heavily traded commodities in the world. Every day perhaps billions of dollars worth of crude oil gets traded. You must be thinking that crude oil contracts get traded between the oil producing countries like Saudi Arabia, Russia, Nigeria and so on with non oil countries. Now to your surprise, New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) is considered to be the hub of crude oil trading in the world.
Light Sweet Crude is the high grade, low sulfur content crude oil that is more easily refined than the thicker oils. Now crude oil coming out of some of the Venezuelan and Saudi Arabian Oil wells contains high sulfur content and requires special refineries that only process the high grade sulfur crude oil. On the other hand Iraqi oil is close to the ground and has very low sulfur content. Ever heard of Light Sweet Crude? Sulfur content in oil is considered to be very important. Lower the sulfur content in crude oil, the easier and less costly will be its refining. The higher the sulfur content in the crude oil, the more expensive its refining will be.
The NYMEX contract for the light sweet crude is the most liquid of all the crude oil contracts. A standard crude oil contract is based on 1,000 barrels of crude oil that will be delivered to Cushing Oklahoma. The E-mini crude oil contract trades on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) GLOBEX platform and is cleared at NYMEX. It is based on 500 barrels of crude oil.
A barrel of oil contains 42 US gallons. Crude oil is traded in US dollars per barrel. In other words, the price of crude oil is quoted in US dollars per barrel. Now trading at NYMEX can be open outcry during the regular treading hours as well as electronic web based trading after hours.
Open outcry or electronic, it doesn’t make a difference to you. Most of the traders now day trade futures contracts from the comfort of their homes. Open outcry trading takes place between 10: 00 AM EST to 2:30 PM EST. After hour trading takes place on NYMEX ACCESSS system, an internet based trading platform starting at 3:15 PM EST Monday through Thursday and ending at 9:30 AM EST the following day. Sunday trading starts at 6:00 PM EST.
Now you must know this thing that real companies have huge trading desks with hundreds of traders all betting on the price of oil. Oil markets are about real people trying to figure out how much oil they would need in the next few months to years to run their businesses regardless of whether they are suppliers or users. Trading crude oil futures contracts require you to be in tune with the market sentiment. Trends in crude oil market don’t develop suddenly and they don’t reverse suddenly. This is something good for you as a crude oil futures trader. It’s always good to visit the website of the exchange to know more. You can visit the website of NYMEX and read a more about the crude oil trading that takes place at that exchange. Trading oil markets requires constant vigil on your part in monitoring the global supply and demand of crude oil. You will need to know which country supplies how much and what the productions quotas are for the time being. This is pretty scary stuff.
When a trend in the crude oil market develops, it may last for a few months to a year. It all depends on the global supply and demand situation of the crude oil. If you can spot a trend in the crude oil market in its early stage and ride it till its reversal, you can make a good profit. Now, just keep this in mind that crude oil prices are highly susceptible to global geopolitical situation and react violently to any political global uncertainty.
Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. Trade Dow Futures . Learn Commodity Trading! Grab a totally unique version of this article from the Uber Article Directory
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