Summary The United States Oil Fund (USO) does not track WTI by buying and storing physical barrels of oil. Instead, it primarily uses WTI-related futures contracts. USCF's current objective is forSummary The United States Oil Fund (USO) does not track WTI by buying and storing physical barrels of oil. Instead, it primarily uses WTI-related futures contracts. USCF's current objective is for

Learn/Trading Guide/US Stocks/How Does USO Track WTI Crude Oil? Futures Contracts, Monthly Rolls and the 2026 Roll Schedule

How Does USO Track WTI Crude Oil? Futures Contracts, Monthly Rolls and the 2026 Roll Schedule

Author: Sarah Chen

Sep 21, 2026Sarah Chen

4 min

Summary

The United States Oil Fund (USO) does not track WTI by buying and storing physical barrels of oil.

Instead, it primarily uses WTI-related futures contracts.

USCF's current objective is for daily percentage changes in USO's NAV to reflect daily percentage changes in the spot price of light sweet crude delivered to Cushing, as measured through its Benchmark Oil Futures Contract, plus collateral interest and less expenses.

Beginning January 1, 2026, USO changed to a five-day roll process, generally transitioning approximately one-fifth of the relevant exposure each day during the roll period.

That makes the correct relationship:

WTI physical market

↓

NYMEX WTI futures

↓

USO benchmark and portfolio

↓

USO NAV

not:

one barrel WTI = one USO share.

What Is WTI?

West Texas Intermediate is one of the world's major crude-oil benchmarks.

The CME WTI futures contract is physically deliverable at Cushing, Oklahoma, a major pipeline, storage and trading hub. CME describes its standard WTI futures contract as representing 1,000 barrels and settling through physical delivery.

What Is a Futures Contract?

A futures contract is a standardized agreement associated with buying or selling a commodity at a specified future date according to exchange rules.

Oil producers, refiners and traders use futures for:

Hedging;
price discovery;
speculation;
inventory management.

A fund such as USO uses futures to create financial exposure without taking ordinary physical ownership of oil for shareholders.

Which Futures Does USO Use?

USCF states that the Benchmark Oil Futures Contract is generally the near-month NYMEX light sweet crude futures contract.

As the monthly roll occurs, the benchmark transitions to the next-month contract.

Why Does USO Need to Roll?

Futures contracts expire.

If USO simply held the near-month contract until delivery without changing its position, it could encounter physical-delivery obligations.

A continuing oil fund therefore needs to replace expiring exposure with later-dated exposure.

That process is called:

rolling the futures position.

What Changed in 2026?

Beginning January 1, 2026, USO adopted a five-day roll period.

USCF states that on each day of the roll, USO seeks to rebalance approximately 20% of the announced percentage of the notional value of its nearest-month exposure and reinvest into remaining holdings and further-dated contracts.

Projected roll dates remain subject to change.

Why Use Five Days Instead of One?

Spreading a large transition across several sessions can potentially reduce concentration of execution on one day.

Conceptually:

Old method

large transition concentrated in a shorter period

versus:

2026 method

approximately:

20% → 20% → 20% → 20% → 20%

across five days.

This does not remove roll risk; it changes how the transition is executed.

What Happens During a Simple Roll?

Suppose USO holds September WTI.

As September expiration approaches, it needs October exposure.

It therefore:

reduces September

and:

increases October.

The price relationship between September and October matters.

What If October Is More Expensive?

Example:

September: $80

October: $83

This is consistent with a contango-like curve.

The fund is moving exposure from a lower-priced contract into a higher-priced contract.

Repeated adverse curves can create a return headwind.

What If October Is Cheaper?

Example:

September: $85

October: $82

This is backwardation.

The roll relationship can be more favorable.

USCF's risk disclosures explain that contango and backwardation can cause futures benchmarks to behave differently even when the broader crude-oil price trend appears similar.

Does USO Always Hold Only One Contract?

Not necessarily.

USCF states that USO can invest in futures on NYMEX and other exchanges and may also use swaps, forwards or further-dated contracts when liquidity, regulatory requirements, risk mitigation or market conditions warrant.

Therefore, investors should review actual holdings rather than assume the portfolio never changes.

Why Did 2020 Matter?

The 2020 oil-market crisis demonstrated why futures-market mechanics matter.

Extreme volatility, position limits and market conditions forced commodity products to change exposure and risk-management practices.

The lesson remains relevant:

An exchange-traded oil product is not the same thing as simply holding an abstract spot-price index.

How Close Is USO Supposed to Track Its Benchmark?

USCF states that USO seeks to invest so that, over any period of 30 successive valuation days, the average daily percentage change in NAV is within plus or minus 10% of the average daily percentage change in its Benchmark Oil Futures Contract.

That target itself demonstrates that USO is designed around daily benchmark behavior, not guaranteed long-term spot-oil replication.