When people say WTI spot price, does it mean the CL futures price for the nearby month, or does WTI really have a spot price? All the WTI spot price chart I found is essentially the chart for the CL futures nearest month. That's why a little confused.
This should help you understand the difference between spot and forward http://www.ufxmarkets.com/learn/forex-school/novice/spot-vs-futures-contract
right, i understand the difference btw spot and future contracts, i am a forex trader, and i never traded crude futures b4. i believe the spot market is much larger than the futures market in forex, and of course one can easily find the chart for both spot and future prices for eur/usd. but i just could not find the chart for wti or brent spot price. btw, just to answer the poster "buy1sell2", a good trader will not assume something and keeps this assumption no matter what, even if it is wrong. i m sure this type of personality affects your trading badly. to be honest, u r the most stupid and arrogant trader i have ever had the opportunity to meet in a forum such as this.
I think for spot crude you would need access to sources like bloomberg or ICE for brent. Not sure if the spot oil market is similar to nat gas but I don't think spot markets aside from currencies are an overly accessible market for retail.
The spot price for crude oil is all over-the-counter (each large buyer/seller calls multiple large sellers/buyers to determine the best price currently available) and very fragmented by delivery location and mode, so there is no single spot price. You can get free weekly updates for daily WTI and Brent crude spot price from the US Government at http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_pri_spt_s1_d.htm, but even on the weekly release day the latest data is 2-3 days old. For daily updates, broken down by market location you will need to subscribe to OPIS ($2000+ per year) or PLATTS ($5000+ per year) or Bloomberg ($1400+ per month).
As suspected--a huge margin trader. The questions here are extremely basic and rudimentary indicative of a situation that is in need of a lot more research prior to bringing forth publicly.
When people refer to "spot WTI", more often than not they are talking about the front month WTI contract. Physical spot prices are subject to quality and delivery location.
From the attached pdf table, it is interesting to note that the spot price was the highest ($47 per barrel) in Cushing, why is that? When business received the future contracts delivery in Cushing, don't they need to pay to transport those crude to other locations? Then why the spot prices in other locations are lower?
Fair question. Inland spot prices and those at the well are usually cheaper because they must be piped to delivery hubs like Cushing, Patoka, or Hardisty. The shipment via pipe adds costs to the crude which are then reflected in the higher prices at the main hubs. If you buy at Cushing for instance, you pay the going rate at Cushing. You don't pay the well price plus costs; someone like Shell, Koch, or BP will work the inland arbitrage and make a profit by buying at the gathering pipes and transporting to the main hubs and selling to regional refiners.