| Can you pass this winter without the heating oil heating | | | | lower margin requirement making them affordable to |
| your house? Something real hard. We are all used to | | | | many of the retail investors. These E-Mini futures |
| having a warm house with the heating oil or natural | | | | contract also get traded on the GLOBEX network of |
| gas during winter. importance of oil and natural gas in | | | | CME Group ( Chicago Mercantile Group). So you can |
| our lives cannot be denied. Energy is the most | | | | easily do electronic trading around the clock.Many day |
| important resource for any economy. Without energy | | | | traders trade these futures contracts successfully. |
| no economy cannot function. Do you remember the | | | | Oil is the center of the universe not only for the |
| summer of 2008 when crude oil prices suddenly | | | | industry and the overall economy but also the financial |
| jumped to around $150 per barrel. The prices came | | | | markets. Oil prices and interest rates usually move in |
| down because of the stock market crash. But they will | | | | the same direction. Rising oil prices leads to inflation in |
| go up again when the global economy recovers from | | | | the economy. Rising inflation forces Central Banks to |
| recession and starts growing again. Many investors | | | | increase interest rates. Then there is the peak oil |
| and especially hedge fund managers made a killing | | | | theory that says that all the known oil wells have been |
| with this sudden upswing in crude oil prices by trading | | | | dug and we have entered a period of decreasing oil |
| crude oil futures. Trading energy futures like the crude | | | | supply coupled with increasing demand. In the next |
| oil, natural gas, gasoline or the heating oil can be highly | | | | decade, oil prices are going to skyrocket. |
| profitable. Crude oil reservoirs are being depleted at a | | | | Energy demand especially for heating oil, natural gas |
| fast pace. There is a peak oil theory that says that oil | | | | and gasoline is extremely seasonal and cyclic in nature. |
| prices will rise in the coming decades as crude oil | | | | In winters, our houses need heating oil and natural gas |
| prices will get decreased while the demand will | | | | for heating purposes. During summers people tend to |
| skyrocket. As a market timer, you should be able to | | | | drive their cars long distances on vacations. |
| profit from this trend in the market. You need to learn | | | | During the spring, refineries switch production from |
| how to trade these energy futures! | | | | heating oil to gasoline. This brings a lull in oil prices as |
| The world's largest energy futures exchange is the | | | | production in most of the refineries slows down. Now |
| New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). NYMEX | | | | as an energy futures trader, you need to keep a close |
| trades futures contracts for crude oil, natural gas, | | | | eye on the US EIA (Energy Information Agency) and |
| heating oil, gasoline, coal, electricity and propane. Visiting | | | | the API (American Petroleum Institute) weekly supply |
| the NYMEX website can give you a lot of useful | | | | data reports. These reports give key insight into the |
| information about calendars and the margin | | | | supply situation of these commodities! |
| requirements for each contract. | | | | In addition to trading crude oil futures, you can trade |
| Now, apart fromt the regular futures contracts that | | | | gasoline futures as well as heating oil futures. Gasoline |
| have a marginr requirement that might not be | | | | accounts for half of the US oil consumption. Gasoline |
| affordable to some of the investors, NYMEX also | | | | prices tend to follow the crude oil prices. So going long |
| provides mini versions of these contracts known as | | | | on crude oil futures and short on gasoline futures can |
| E-mini futures. E-mini oil and gas futres have a much | | | | be a good strategy! |