For you oil guys, is contango still an issue? And how does one find out whether we're in contango or not -- what spread do I look at (any sites with the info?). Reason I ask is I was thinking of putting on some USO soon for a long term hold in the IRA (oil at $70 I think good place to start) and don't want it being eaten up by contango if it's still as strong as it was in the beg of the year. Any advice would be great, thanks.
Google is great for finding out what contango is but I am not sure what search parameters to put for what I am interested in, that is the rate of contango over time, i.e. is contango still as much an issue as it was earlier this year.
There's got to be some futures trader who can answer my question. How can I access a chart that shows me the historical rate of contango? I know from traders that contango is not as bad now as it was 12 months ago, but I'd like to see the evidence myself.
http://www.indexuniverse.com/sections/features/6851-contango-blues.html http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=crude+oil+contango+chart&aq=f&oq=&aqi=
There is also a etf out there that is invested in oil that does not roll contracts. I believe it just hold clz12 or something like that. You could put your money in that and not have to worry bout contango
If CLZ-2012 is at ~$85/barrel and front-month CL is at ~$70/barrel, the "carry", i.e. contango, WILL be a problem to overcome. :eek:
1) Go to futuresource.com and display a quote-page of all of the crude oil contracts to get a better "look" at what the differentials are between the months. 2) Go to cme.com and ask for the archive links to their crude oil webinars from April and August of this year. You may be able to earn one-trillion dollars as a result of their content and info.
They just carry it forward, it's impossible to get away from contango unless you have an oil tanker to store the stuff.