Top Crude Oil ETFs Ranked: Futures, Leveraged & Inverse

The United States Oil Fund (USO), launched on April 10, 2006, was the first crude oil ETF and remains the most widely traded. It tracks WTI front-month futures on the NYSE Arca, giving shareholders direct exposure to daily oil price movements without a futures account.

Crude oil ETFs fall into three structural categories, each with distinct mechanics:

• Futures-based ETFs: USO tracks WTI front-month contracts, BNO tracks Brent crude futures, and USL spreads its holdings across 12 months of WTI futures to reduce the impact of contango — the situation where future-dated contracts cost more than near-term ones, eroding returns during contract rolls.
• Optimized-roll ETFs: The Invesco DB Oil Fund (DBO) benchmarks against the DBIQ Optimum Yield Crude Oil Index, which selects contract months to minimize roll costs rather than simply holding the front month.
• Leveraged and inverse ETFs: ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Crude Oil (UCO) targets 2x the daily return of WTI futures, while ProShares UltraShort Bloomberg Crude Oil (SCO) targets the inverse at 2x. Both reset daily, making them short-term trading instruments.
• K-1 free structure: ProShares K-1 Free Crude Oil ETF (OILK) uses swap agreements instead of futures contracts, eliminating the K-1 tax form that other crude oil ETFs typically issue.

All of these funds are U.S.-listed and issued by either United States Commodity Funds (USCF) or ProShares. The two underlying benchmarks — WTI (West Texas Intermediate) and Brent crude — represent the global oil pricing standards, with USO and BNO tracking each respectively.

For broader exposure to oil and gas companies by market cap, equity-based oil funds hold shares in producers and refiners instead of futures. These sidestep contango but are influenced by company fundamentals beyond the oil price itself. You can also explore our natural gas ETFs list or the full commodity ETFs overview for related funds.

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The table below ranks top-performing crude oil ETFs with live data on prices, returns, and fund details, updated daily.