Feedback
Nothing Fuels the Energy Marketplace Like NYMEX WTI
The World's Most Liquid Crude Oil Benchmark
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures and options are the world's most actively traded energy product. Customers around the world have sought out WTI futures for price discovery and risk management for more than 25 years. Here is why:
Key Facts about NYMEX Light Sweet Crude Oil
- Most Liquid: WTI is the deepest and most liquid global energy benchmark, trading nearly 900,000 futures and options contracts daily.
- Largest Open Interest: Total open interest in WTI has reached near record levels at 7.5 million lots, equivalent to more than 7.5 billion barrels.
- Increased Access and Production: In May, when the Seaway pipeline reverses, WTI crude oil will reach the Gulf Coast, reaffirming WTI's importance as a global benchmark. It will also provide an outlet for the increasing production of supply from the Mid-Continent, Bakken, and Canadian oil fields.
- Most Transparency: WTI's superior transparency and convergence to the physical market enables investors to make sound judgments on the basis of accurate weekly supply and demand information.
- Efficient Margining: CME Group offers margin erosion and has the most WTI and Brent offsets
Product Information
- Outright contract between a buyer and seller
- Accessible to international spot markets via pipelines
- Several grades of domestic and internationally traded foreign crudes
- Swaps and six types of options : American style, calendar spread, crack spreads, average price, European style and daily
Related Education
Research Papers
- The Role of WTI as a Crude Oil Benchmark (PDF)
- An Evaluation of the Performance of Oil Price Benchmarks During the Financial Crisis (PDF)
- Sour Crude Oil Products in the U.S. Gulf Coast (PDF)
- Trade Energy with Confidence (PDF)
Archived Webinars and Presentations
- An Evaluation of the Performance of Oil Price Benchmarks During the Financial Crisis WTI (video)
- WTI: Understanding the Global Crude Oil Benchmark (PowerPoint presentation, August 2009)
- WTI Q1 Webinar Update: Understanding the Global Crude Benchmark (narrated PowerPoint presentation, March 2009)
- WTI: Quarterly Update: A Fundamental Analysis (PowerPoint presentation, August 2009)
- WTI Q2 Webinar Update: A Fundamentals Analysis (narrated PowerPoint presentation, August 2009
