How to Trade Oil (WTI and Brent): CFDs, Futures, and Funded Accounts

Crude oil is one of the most actively traded commodities in the world. It moves on supply and demand, OPEC decisions, inventory data, and geopolitics, which makes it a favourite for traders who want a liquid, event-driven instrument. There is more than one way to trade it, and the right route depends on your account size and where you trade.

This guide explains the two main crude benchmarks, the practical ways to trade oil, what actually moves the price, and how traders access oil through a funded account.

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WTI vs Brent: the two oil benchmarks

Crude oil is priced against two main benchmarks:

• WTI (West Texas Intermediate) is the US benchmark, lighter and sweeter crude, priced at delivery in Cushing, Oklahoma. It is the reference most retail platforms quote.
• Brent is the international benchmark, drawn from North Sea fields and used to price most of the world's traded crude.

The two track each other closely and the gap between them (the Brent-WTI spread) reflects regional supply, transport, and demand differences. Most active traders focus on WTI because it is the most quoted and liquid retail contract.

The ways to trade oil

1. Oil CFDs. A contract for difference that tracks the crude price. You go long or short with leverage and never take delivery of a barrel. This is the most flexible route for position sizing and the most common for active retail traders.

2. Oil futures. Exchange-listed contracts (CME's WTI contract CL, and the smaller micro contract) to buy or sell crude at a set price on a future date. Futures give deep exchange liquidity and transparent pricing, but fixed contract sizes and expiries make fine sizing harder for smaller accounts and add rollover management.

3. A funded account. Trade crude oil pricing on a firm's capital against a profit split, with your downside limited to a one-time challenge fee.

Physical crude and energy equities exist too, but for active trading the practical routes are CFDs, futures, and funded accounts. For how position value is calculated across any of these, see notional value explained.

What moves the oil price

Oil is driven by supply and demand, and both react to scheduled events:

• OPEC and OPEC+ decisions. Production quotas from the major exporting nations move crude sharply. A surprise cut or increase can reprice oil in minutes.
• Inventory data. Weekly US inventory reports (the EIA and API figures) show whether supply is building or drawing down, and they are among the most reliable intraday catalysts for WTI.
• Demand expectations. Global growth, industrial activity, and seasonal driving and heating demand all move consumption forecasts.
• Geopolitics. Conflict, sanctions, and disruptions to production or shipping routes add a risk premium fast, because so much crude moves through a few chokepoints.
• The US dollar. Oil is priced in dollars, so a stronger dollar tends to pressure crude and a weaker dollar tends to support it.

Trading oil on a funded account

A funded account lets you trade a firm's capital against a profit split, with your downside limited to the challenge fee. For a full comparison of the model against trading your own money, see funded trading vs leverage trading.

Velotrade offers crude oil as a first-class commodity instrument:

• WTI crude oil trades at up to 6x leverage on the challenge (5x funded), with commission of 0.01% per side and no spread markup.
• It sits on one DXtrade funded account alongside crypto, forex, indices, and other commodities including gold, silver, copper, and natural gas, so you can rotate between markets without switching firms. See the full instrument list.
• The rules are calibrated for active trading: static maximum drawdown (the loss floor is fixed from your starting balance and never trails your equity), no consistency rule, and news trading permitted, which matters on oil because it moves hard around OPEC decisions and inventory data.

Velotrade is unregulated and offers educational, simulated evaluations with real-time market pricing. It is not a broker, dealer, or custodian, and no orders are placed on an exchange.

Oil trading basics

• Volatility. Crude can move several percent in a session around a major catalyst, so size positions against your daily loss limit, not against your conviction.
• Sessions. Oil is most active during US and European hours and around the weekly inventory release, when liquidity and volume peak.
• Contango and backwardation. Because oil has a futures curve, the relationship between near and far contracts (contango when far months are pricier, backwardation when they are cheaper) tells you about supply expectations.
• Correlation. Oil often moves with risk sentiment and against the dollar, and it can trade independently of equities during supply shocks, which makes it useful for diversification within a multi-asset account.

For a wider view of trading commodities, see how to trade gold, and to compare firms for commodity trading, see best multi-asset prop firm.