As one of the most important energy sources in the world, crude oil occupies an important position in the international commodity market. Overseas markets mainly invest in commodity or crude oil markets through commodity swaps, commodity funds and related ETFs (transactional open-end funds) and corresponding stocks and bonds. Crude oil futures are characterized by continuous prices, convenient trading and strong representativeness. WTI crude oil futures in the New York Mercantile Exchange and Brent crude oil futures in Intercontinental Exchange are the two most important crude oil price benchmarks in the world. Compared with crude oil futures, the development history of crude oil ETF is relatively short.

Birth time and activity content

The world's first crude oil futures ETF was born in 2005. At that time, the world economy recovered strongly, the global demand for crude oil increased sharply, the prices of primary products such as agricultural products accelerated, and the international crude oil price exceeded $60/barrel for the first time. Since then, the global economy has always been under the pressure of high oil prices. Investors hope to have a convenient and low-cost way to invest in crude oil assets. It is in this context that the world's first crude oil ETF came into being.

USO crude oil futures ETF was established in April 2006 10. Although it was established nearly a year later than the first crude oil futures ETF, the global economy continued to maintain rapid growth at that time, the international crude oil price was still at a high level, and a large number of speculators turned to commodity markets such as oil. With the launch of many crude oil futures ETFs, the investment model of crude oil futures ETFs has gradually been recognized by the market. In this context, the investment model of crude oil futures ETF is gradually recognized by the market.

In terms of trading activity, international crude oil futures trading is very active, while crude oil futures ETF is not as good as crude oil futures contract. For example, 20 13, WTI crude oil futures active contracts sold 588,000 lots per day, and Brent crude oil futures active contracts sold 634,000 lots per day. As a supporting product of crude oil futures, crude oil futures ETF is small in scale and limited in quantity. The main reason is that the global commodity market is generally supported by developed related futures markets, and investors tend to choose more familiar crude oil futures as investment tools. At the same time, there is an error between crude oil futures ETF and crude oil spot price, which reduces the attractiveness of crude oil futures ETF.

ETF of crude oil futures needs to pay management fees, and trading is far less active than crude oil futures. Those large institutions that need to allocate crude oil assets and oil-related enterprises that need to hedge are more inclined to directly participate in the trading of crude oil futures.