Crude oil is one of the most basic international commodities and plays an important role in industry. China imports hundreds of billions of dollars of crude oil every year. However, in the exchange, the price of crude oil futures can actually be negative. On the evening of April 20th, Beijing time, the May contract of WTI crude oil futures fell to -37.63 USD/barrel, which is rare in history. Why is WTI crude oil price negative? WTI crude oil futures may contract is about to expire on the same day. At this time, some investors will close their positions in May in advance so as to have enough cash to buy contracts in June, which will lead to a large number of selling in May, which will lead to a sharp drop in crude oil futures contracts in May. In addition, there is another important reason, that is, the inventory capacity of WTI crude oil is insufficient. The delivery system of WTI crude oil is physical delivery, with only one delivery place and relatively limited transportation capacity; At the moment of the epidemic, crude oil is under-used, but the inventory is sufficient, which further leads to insufficient inventory capacity. After delivery, crude oil has nowhere to store, which will naturally cause crude oil futures prices to plummet. These are the reasons why crude oil futures prices are negative. At the moment when the epidemic broke out, there were many rare events in the financial market. Everyone must pay attention to risks when investing.