How are Oil ETF`s Performing

How are Oil ETF`s performing year to date? The performance is actually quite different, with the leveraged DXO performing better than its peers. DBO is up 1.75% for the year, while OIL ETF is down 7.7%. The most traded oil ETF, the USO tracking ETF is down 2.3% for the year. The difference is probably on how they have managed this supercontango in the crude oil futures.

USO ETF: -2.3%

United States Oil Fund, LP (USOF) is a domestic exchange traded security designed to track the movements of light, sweet crude oil (West Texas Intermediate). USO issues units that may be purchased and sold on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Arca. The Company invests in futures contracts for light, sweet crude oil and other types of crude oil, heating oil, gasoline, natural gas and other petroleum-based fuels that are traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), International Currency Exchange (ICE) Futures or other United States and foreign exchanges (collectively, Oil Futures Contracts). It holds interests in other oil-related investments such as cash-settled options on Oil Futures Contracts, forward oil contracts, and oil-based over-the-counter transactions. The Company is managed and controlled by its general partner, United States Commodity Funds LLC.

DBO ETF: +1.75%

PowerShares DB Oil Fund (the Fund) is based on the Deutsche Bank Liquid Commodity Index - Optimum Yield Oil Excess Return (the Index) and is managed by DB Commodity Services LLC (the Managing Owner). The Index is a rules-based index consisting of futures contracts on light sweet crude oil and is intended to reflect the performance of crude oil. The Fund is a separate series of PowerShares DB Multi-Sector Commodity Trust. The Fund’s investment advisor is Invesco PowerShares Capital Management LLC.

OIL ETF: -7.7%

iPath S&P GSCI Crude Oil Total Return Index ETN is a sub-index of the S&P GSCI Commodity Index. The S&P GSCI Crude Oil Total Return Index reflects the returns that are potentially available through an unleveraged investment in the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures contract plus the Treasury Bill rate of interest that could be earned on funds committed to the trading of the underlying contracts. The S&P GSCI is an index on a production-weighted basket of futures contracts on physical commodities traded on trading facilities in major industrialized countries. The S&P GSCI is designed to be a measure of the performance over time of the markets for these commodities.

DXO ETF: +9%

The investment seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, 200% of the daily return of the Deutsche Bank Liquid Commodity index - Optimum Yield Oil Excess Return. The fund allows investors to take a leveraged view on the performance of crude oil. The index is a rules-based index composed of futures contracts on light sweet crude oil (WTI) and is intended to reflect the performance of crude oil.

DBO seems to be managing this extreme contango better than its peers. The leveraged DXO is also performing very well.