United States 12 Month Oil Fund, LP (USL)

[OilStockReport]

West Texas Intermediate

Also known as Texas light sweet crude oil, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) is a type of crude oil used as a benchmark in oil pricing and serves as the underlying commodity on NYMEX oil futures contracts. WTI is primarily refined in the Midwest and Gulf Coast regions of the U.S., and maintains its price settlement point in Cushing, Oklahoma [see Oil ETF Gets Boost From IEA Report].

WTI is lighter and sweeter then Brent crude, and generally is $1 more expensive than Brent (and $2 more expensive than the OPEC Reference Basket, a weighted average of oil blends from OPEC countries).

ETFs offering exposure to WTI include:

United States 12 Month Oil (USL): This ETF also invests in WTI futures, but spreads exposure across various maturities instead of investing exclusively in front month contracts. That potentially reduces the impact of contango, but also makes the fund less sensitive to changes in the spot price [also see What Oil ETF Cash Flows Tell Us About Crude Prices].

http://etfdb.com/2010/oil-etf-investing-five-ways-to-play/