Thanks to the shale boom, the U.S. is now a major oil exporter, which could threaten oil prices. In fact, China has become a major buyer of U.S. crude.
Oil’s slump “worsened after OPEC delegates downplayed the chance that their group and other producing countries would deepen their output cuts when they meet on May 25. They did say current output cuts were likely to be extended,” according to CNBC.
Risk-tolerant traders looking for leveraged plays on oil prices can consider the newly minted ProShares rolled out the ProShares UltraPro 3x Crude Oil ETF (NYSEArca: OILU) and ProShares UltraPro 3x Short Crude Oil ETF (NYSEArca: OILD), which debuted in March.
OILU and OILD will try to reflect the daily performance that is 3x and -3x, respectively, of the underlying Bloomberg WTI Crude Oil Subindex. The two ETFs will gain exposure to the benchmark by investing in listed futures contracts for West Texas Intermediate sweet, light crude oil futures contracts.
For more information on the crude oil market, visit our oil category.