United States Oil Fund, L.P. (USO)

Profile

https://www.uscfinvestments.com/uso

United States Oil Fund, L.P. is a commodity pool structured as an exchange-traded fund that seeks to mirror the daily percentage moves of West Texas Intermediate light, sweet crude oil prices through futures-based exposure. Its stated objective is for daily changes in net asset value to reflect the daily changes in the spot price at Cushing, Oklahoma, as proxied by a designated near-term NYMEX futures contract, plus interest on collateral and less expenses. Rather than holding physical crude, the fund primarily invests in WTI futures and may use other petroleum-related derivatives such as swaps, forwards, and options across U.S. and foreign exchanges to manage exposure and liquidity. This structure makes it a widely used instrument for tactical oil price exposure by both retail and institutional market participants, while highlighting futures-market dynamics like rolling, contango, and basis effects between spot and futures that can impact tracking over time. Managed by United States Commodity Funds LLC, the fund publishes daily holdings and supports its derivative positions with short-term U.S. Treasury collateral and cash equivalents.