Are there any ETF's that hold physical crude, natural gas, heating oil the way StreetTracks Gold Shares (GLD) does with physical gold? The ETF's I've seen for energies so far are based a basket of energy stocks.
I don't think ETFs are permitted to own physical. UNG is natgas futs. USO is energy (crude & products) futs. I don't think either of those contain equities.
I'm not sure holding the physical commodity is superior to rolling over futures contracts. the futures curve is the 'market', most people cant beat the market so if you think the deferred oil futures are too expensive or that you will lose returns rolling over due the contango you can make free money by putting in spread trades betting that the market is wrong
a look into what some etf's hold (physical or futures): http://seekingalpha.com/article/64220-commodity-etf-overview also, http://etf.stock-encyclopedia.com/category/commodity-etfs.html
Word on ETNs...Illustration of credit risk: Lehman Brothers ETNs Delisted Submitted by ETNCenter.com on Fri, 09/19/2008 - 13:12. * ETN News With the failure of Lehman Brothers to find a buyer and its subsequent bankruptcy, all of its Opta ETNs have stopped trading, and are now worthless. It will be interesting to see how this situation affects the future of all other ETNs, since it has proven that ETN holders are exposed to credit risk as well as risk of their investment losing value due to a decline in the underlying value of the security