Trade oil CFDs with FOREX.com

Trading Brent oil and WTI through CFDs is commission free with FOREX.com. Instead, you’re charged via the spread, which is the difference between the buy and sell price. For example, if WTI (US Crude) is trading at 68.56, with a 2.5 spread, you’d see a buy price of 6860.9 and a sell price of 6863.4.

And, because CFDs are leveraged, you only need to pay 10% of the full value of the trade you want to open. For example, if you want to place a CFD trade for $5,000 worth of Brent, you’d only need to pay $500 as the initial capital to open the trade. However, both your profit and loss would be calculated on the full $5,000 – creating the potential for magnified gains and risk.

Learn more about CFD costs

Brent CFDs vs WTI CFDs

Brent crude CFDs – UK Crude on our platform – track the price of Brent futures. Brent is the benchmark for oil extracted from the North Sea, which has a low density and low sulphur content.

WTI crude CFDs – US Crude on our platform – follow the price of West Texas Intermediary futures. This is the benchmark for oil extracted from across the United States. It’s generally lighter and sweeter than Brent and contains even less sulphur.

Generally, Brent CFDs trade at a premium to WTI, because supply is lower while North America has ramped up shale and oil sand extraction. However, Brent CFDs and WTI CFDs have similar underlying contract specifications.

Spot prices for US and UK Crude are based on the prices of the futures with the nearest expiries – making it important to understand the underlying contracts.