You can buy oil companies on the stock market, but not oil itself. If you want to purchase oil, you can go to the futures or forwards markets.Can you buy oil on the stock market and if you can, how much do you have to have to do so?
Oil stocks and the market as a whole are near all time highs right now and although I am not a series 7 broker I would advise you against the purchase of any asset at peak prices (IE gold at $700 an ounce) however oil companies are posting record profits lately. This makes them in my mind at least a better buy than most other companies being sold on the street currently with a horrible real earnings to share value ratio that usually signals a big collapse in the market as a whole. The only other problem with a buy here would be the fact that large companies like Royal Dutch Shell are already under fire by the C.F.T.C. for price fixing in the commodities markets and this of course has the potential to impact share prices considerably especially if it triggers a panicky selling frenzy when the company you own gets caught doing what it shouldn't. While the current scrutiny is on foreign owned oil companies, it's still possible the U.S. based companies will one day be punished as well.
In short it will cost a lot per share to buy them right now and chances are they will not go up much from here especially since oil prices have eased considerably.
Contact a ,'; futures broker'; for the details ..
There is only one pure oil play. The is ticker symbol USO. You're buying directly shares of oil futures. Otherwise, you can just buy shares of oil companies, like ExxonMobile, Chevron, etc. You can buy 1 share to as many shares as you like. The cost of the transaction is the cost of your brokerage commission, some as low as $7 per trade.
You can also buy oil at most automobile parts stores, such as Autozone, Pep Boys, NAPA. My car uses 10W-40. You can also find oil for sale at most gasoline stations and even grocery stores. Wal-Mart sells motor oil. Check it out. Most oil averages around $1.20 per quart.
Not on the stock market. Futures contracts for light, sweet crude oil are traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
An oil future, like any commodity future ';is a contract to buy or sell certain certain goods, such as oil, at set prices at a predetermined time in the future';. These are not just bought and sold by those interested in actual physical barrels of oil - crude oil futures are purchased by investors and speculators as well. In fact, ';about 95% of oil traded on the Nymex never shows up as physical product';.
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