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Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) 
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Light Sweet Crude Oil (Physical) futures are an outright crude oil contract between a buyer and seller. The contracts also serve as a key international pricing benchmark, and:

  • Offer excellent liquidity and price transparency
  • Provide the world's most liquid forum for crude oil trading
  • Are the world's largest-volume futures contract on a physical commodity
  • Serve the diverse needs of the physical market

Things to know:

  • Unit of trading is 1,000 barrels
  • Delivery point is Cushing, Oklahoma, which is also accessible to the international spot markets via pipelines
  • Delivery provided for several grades of domestic and internationally traded foreign crudes
  • Six types of options: American style, calendar spread, crack spreads, average price, European style and daily

About Light Sweet Crude Oil
Crude oil is the world's most actively traded commodity. Light, sweet crudes are preferred by refiners because of their low sulfur content and relatively high yields of high-value products such as gasoline, diesel fuel, heating oil, and jet fuel.

NYMEX, a member exchange of CME Group, also lists for trading electronically a financially settled futures contract for Dubai crude oil; a futures contract on the differential between the light, sweet crude oil futures contract and Canadian Bow River crude at Hardisty, Alberta; and futures contracts on the differentials of the light, sweet crude oil futures contract and four domestic grades of crude oil: Light Louisiana Sweet, West Texas Intermediate-Midland, West Texas Sour, and Mars Blend.