We all know the importance of oil for the global economy. In the summer of 2008 when crude oil prices skyrocketed from around seventy dollars to more than one forty dollars per barrel in a matter of just few months, the global economy came to a screeching halt. Energy is the driver of any economy. When energy prices go up, the cost of living increases and inflation takes hold of the economy. Energy will be the focal point of the global economy for many many decades. Without energy no economy can function. Imagine passing this winter without heating oil heating your house. This should tell you the importance of energy in our lives. Trading energy futures like crude oil, heating oil, gasoline and natural gas has made many people a fortune. The good thing is that you too can trade these futures and profit from something that is the get more and more important in the forseeable future. Trade Crude Oil Futures! Do you want to make money while you sleep? Forex MegaDroid Robot made 2,270.30% in 2009 averaging 101% every month. Get the Ultimate Swing Trading Software FREE.

Now let’s get down to the brasstacks. NYMEX (New York Mercantile Exchange) is the world’s largest physical commodity exchange. You can trade a lot of commodity futures contracts at NYMEX including the crude oil, coal, electricity, heating oil, natural gas and propane futures. There are dozens of futures contracts that you can trade. People only talk of the forex as the golden goose. Futures market can be hude and lucrative. Bruce Kovner, the reclusive billionaire who once was a NYC Taxi Cab driver started with only ,000 borrowed on his credit card in 1977. He traded both futures and forex and eventually ended up making Billion. Richard Dennis started with only 0 and ended up making more than 0 Million trading commodity futures. This is the best time to trade crude oil futures. As the global economy comes out of recession, the prices of crude oil will skyrocket this time to around 0 per barrel. Visitng the NYMEX website can give you a lot of useful information on what type of futures contract get traded on it and what the margin requirements for these contracts. You should take a look at the NYMEX website. Now you can electronically trade these futures contract on the CME Group GLOBEX Platform around the clock from the comfort of your home. Of course before you start trading live, you need to paper trade a lot and develop a feel of the energy market.

Now, apart from the regular futures contracts that have a marginr requirement that might not be affordable to some of the investors, NYMEX also provides mini versions of these contracts known as E-mini futures. E-mini oil and gas futres have a much lower margin requirement making them affordable to many of the retail investors. These E-Mini futures contract also get traded on the GLOBEX network of CME Group ( Chicago Mercantile Group). So you can easily do electronic trading around the clock.Many day traders trade these futures contracts successfully.

Oil is the center of the universe not only for the industry and the overall economy but also the financial markets. Oil prices and interest rates usually move in the same direction. Rising oil prices leads to inflation in the economy. Rising inflation forces Central Banks to increase interest rates. Then there is the peak oil theory that says that all the known oil wells have been dug and we have entered a period of decreasing oil supply coupled with increasing demand. In the next decade, oil prices are going to skyrocket.

Energy demand especially for heating oil, natural gas and gasoline is extremely seasonal and cyclic in nature. In winters, our houses need heating oil and natural gas for heating purposes. During summers people tend to drive their cars long distances on vacations.

During the spring, refineries switch production from heating oil to gasoline. This brings a lull in oil prices as production in most of the refineries slows down. Now as an energy futures trader, you need to keep a close eye on the US EIA (Energy Information Agency) and the API (American Petroleum Institute) weekly supply data reports. These reports give key insight into the supply situation of these commodities!

In addition to trading crude oil futures, you can trade gasoline futures as well as heating oil futures. Gasoline accounts for half of the US oil consumption. Gasoline prices tend to follow the crude oil prices. So going long on crude oil futures and short on gasoline futures can be a good strategy!