Oil Prices

Crude oil prices behave much as any other commodity with wide price swings in times of shortage or oversupply. The crude oil price cycle may extend over several years responding to changes in demand as well as OPEC and non-OPEC supply. Over the last 50 years Crude Oil has seen many lows and highs, conflict in the Middle East and production strikes in Nigeria are some of the many reasons we have had for the price of Crude Oil to rise. References to Oil prices are usually references to the spot price of either WTI/Light Crude as traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), or the price of Brent as traded on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE, which the International Petroleum Exchange has been incorporated into) Individuals can now trade crude oil through online trading sites, or with their banks through structured products indexed on the Commodities markets.