The Key Difference Most Missing About Oil Prices

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Oil prices have been the talk of the world since Feb. 28, the day the U.S. and Israel launched their war against Iran. But nearly everyone seems to be missing a crucial detail about oil and how its price is measured.

If you flip through the cable news channels or skim through news articles, you will likely come across the words “Brent” and “Crude” in the same sentence.

Brent Crude — cited by virtually every media outlet and pundit on the planet when discussing how the war has affected oil prices — measures the price of oil futures traded on the Intercontinental Exchange. In other words, it’s the global benchmark for the “paper price” of oil. (RELATED: Iran War Pain Quickly Sets In As World Reels From Full Blockade)

So, what exactly are oil futures? As a nuts-and-bolts Investopedia article puts it, oil futures are contracts “that allow investors to buy or sell oil at a predetermined price at a future date, providing a way to hedge against price fluctuations.”

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