Oil - WTI / Brent Crude

[THENUTS]

Anyway, back to the oil. If you wanted to get on the futures or whatever they are called, what would be the best way to buy at todays price? .

http://www.ig.com/uk/welcome-to-ig

[steven1976]

Thanks Mark,
Have you used interactive brokers yourself and taken money out of the account?

Im not bothered about trading it myself. I just want to buy something at the moment that i would be happy to put at the back of my mind and leave for a few years. Im just worried of boiler room type scenarios, as i've never bought stock or traded contracts. So im just looking for the easiest confirmed trust worthy way of doing it with out it being complicated.

Ste

[steven1976]

Anyway, back to the oil. If you wanted to get on the futures or whatever they are called, what would be the best way to buy at todays price? .

http://www.ig.com/uk/welcome-to-ig

Have you used these Thenutts?

Ste

[marksmeets302]

I've used interactive brokers for ten to fifteen years now, and am really happy with them. Yes, I have withdrawn quite a bit of money already. No problems. They sailed through 2008 without a hiccup.

If you want to buy and hold oil, go for an ETC.

[THENUTS]

Anyway, back to the oil. If you wanted to get on the futures or whatever they are called, what would be the best way to buy at todays price? .

http://www.ig.com/uk/welcome-to-ig

Have you used these Thenutts?

Ste

yes - for many years - they are one of the big boys in financial spread betting. You dont actually have direct market access and someone else is not taking the other side of your bet directly , it all goes through IG Index. The spreads are tight and they just skim their bit in the spread rather than you pay commission. The easiest way in my opinion to take a punt on oil if thats what you want to do - very easy to open account - stick in some money and away you go.

[steven1976]

Thanks thenuts and marksmeets, will look at it this weekend.

[superfrank]

Avoid spread betting; it's a ripoff in terms of transaction costs.

Sub-$50 is quite possible now - I'd buy an ETF for a longer term trade, but be careful which one you choose as some are leveraged.

Re the current price it's not just oil but commodity weakness in general reflecting weak demand and the fact that most real economies aren't actually recovering - ignore stock/property prices, that's just printed/easy money finding a home in reckless financial times and does not reflect what's happening in the real world.

[Euler]

Less than $60 now

[Euler]

$20 a barrel anybody?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30585538

[PeterLe]

Its an industry that I work in and its a bloody nightmare if you are dealing with the big oil companies. Everyone is on tenterhooks I can tell you (and the purse strings are well and truly tied) !

[Euler]

I have a friend in the industry who works on special projects. Basically hard to reach Oil, it's only viable at $100+ so he is out of work for some time it looks.

[andyfuller]

Sure I heard this morning on 'Wake Up To Money' that they reckon the Saudi's could go to $6 a barrel if needs be It was quite early though so I may have miss heard but sure I didn't.

[superfrank]

Sure I heard this morning on 'Wake Up To Money' that they reckon the Saudi's could go to $6 a barrel if needs be It was quite early though so I may have miss heard but sure I didn't.

'think that's true Andy. Middle East oil is very easy/cheap to extract by comparison, the Ghawar field in Saudi being by far the biggest in the world. just shows how much profit they must have made over the years just from being lucky enough to be sat on it all!

[Euler]

Nice write up: -

http://aswathdamodaran.blogspot.co.uk/2 ... ndary.html

[superfrank]

US crude at $50 today. I wouldn't be in any rush to buy it though; $40-$60 may be the new norm for some time and if Germany don't allow the ECB to print too much (and OPEC stick to their guns) then it could go a fair bit lower (imho).

Happy new year to all traders (who don't work for a bank).