Lee Borden

Light and Sweet: Oil ETFs Ranked

Thanks for a rare gift, a frank and factual discussion of the differences among the various oil-related ETFs. It's refreshing to find such useful information in the normal thicket of shrill conclusions about what's going to happen in all of this.

I know your focus is ETFs rather than investment in crude oil, but could I interest you in an assignment? With all the proposals floating in Congress now to "stamp out speculation," what effect will these various proposals have, if any, on the ability of USO and OIL to continue their core investment strategy?

I think Congress is being somewhat sloppy with its terminology, using "speculation" and "manipulation" more or less interchangeably. If Congress acts to counter manipulation, it would be doing a service to the investment community. If it acts to reduce speculation, however, my assumption is that it will succeed only in moving oil speculation to other countries. It may then be harder or impossible for U.S. investors to speculate, but the speculation will nevertheless occur. Do you have any thoughts on this?