How to Trade Oil (WTI and Brent) Without Guessing Your Size
Oil is the market where sizing mistakes are most expensive, because one contract is 1,000 barrels and a one-dollar move is a thousand dollars. Get the contract right first, then the trade.
Oil is traded as WTI (the CL futures contract) or Brent, through futures, CFDs or ETFs. One standard CL contract is 1,000 barrels, so a $1.00 move is $1,000 and the $0.01 tick is $10; the micro MCL is a tenth of that. Inventories, OPEC+ decisions, geopolitics and the dollar drive the price.
Oil position size
Risk per contract = stop in dollars × barrels per contract. A $1.00 move on one CL contract is $1,000; the $0.01 tick is $10. Confirm the contract size with your broker or the exchange.
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WTI (West Texas Intermediate) is the US benchmark, traded as the CL futures contract; Brent is the North Sea benchmark and the global reference. They usually move together with a shifting price difference between them. Most retail traders access one or the other as a CFD, a futures contract or an ETF, and the instrument decides your contract size.
The numbers that decide your risk
A standard CL futures contract is 1,000 barrels: a $1.00 move is $1,000 per contract, and the minimum tick of $0.01 is $10. The micro contract (MCL) is a tenth of that. CFD sizing varies by broker and is quoted in barrels. The calculator above converts your stop in dollars per barrel into contracts or CFD size at your chosen risk.
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Play free, no signup →What moves oil
- Inventories. The weekly US crude stocks report reliably moves price; check the calendar for the time.
- OPEC+ decisions on production quotas.
- Geopolitics and supply disruption, which can gap the market outside your session.
- Demand expectations, so oil often reacts to the same macro data as equities.
- The dollar, since oil is priced in it.
Where oil traders get hurt
- Treating one contract as one lot. A CL contract is not a mini or a CFD; the same "1" is ten times the risk.
- Stops that ignore volatility. Oil's daily range is wide, so a stop sized for EUR/USD is noise.
- Holding through inventories without meaning to.
- Futures expiry and rollover, which change the contract you are trading and can distort the chart if you are looking at a continuous series.
- Overnight gaps on geopolitical news, which can exceed a stop.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between WTI and Brent?
WTI is the US benchmark (the CL futures contract), Brent is the North Sea and global benchmark. They move together with a varying spread between them.
How big is one oil contract?
A standard CL futures contract is 1,000 barrels, so a $1.00 move is $1,000 and a $0.01 tick is $10. The micro (MCL) is a tenth of that. CFD sizes vary by broker.
What moves the oil price?
Inventory data, OPEC+ production decisions, geopolitics and supply disruption, demand expectations and the US dollar.
Can I trade oil with a small account?
Micro futures and small CFD sizes make it possible, but oil's wide daily range means the position has to be small for the same money at risk.
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