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Energy Futures
Our three energy targets are all NYMEX-listed, monthly-cycle, cash-settled contracts that reference someone else's settlement: MCL and QM settle to CL (the physically-delivered WTI benchmark), and BZ settles to ICE Brent. That means (a) none of them has delivery/first-notice mechanics of its own, (b) their price histories are only as good as the parent benchmark's, and (c) roll timing is inherited — MCL and QM both terminate one business day before the corresponding CL month (verified: MCL and QM Aug-2026 both last-trade 20 Jul 2026 per the calendar API — MCL, QM), while BZ terminates on the last business day of the second month before the contract month (BZ Sep-2026 last-trades 31 Jul 2026 per calendar API).
Hours for all three (and CL): Globex Sunday 6:00 p.m. – Friday 5:00 p.m. ET, daily maintenance break 5:00–6:00 p.m. ET, no afternoon halt (tastytrade hours; CME MCL education page gives "Sunday to Friday, 5:00 PM to 4:00 PM CT with a 1-hour daily trading halt 4:00–5:00 PM CT"). Daily settlement window for the CL complex: 14:28:00–14:30:00 ET (CME wiki).
MCL — Micro WTI Crude Oil
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Full name / exchange | Micro WTI Crude Oil Futures, NYMEX (spec page) |
| Contract size | 100 barrels (1/10 of CL) (CME education overview) |
| Quote / tick | USD/barrel; $0.01 = $1.00 |
| Hours (ET) | Sun 6:00 p.m.–Fri 5:00 p.m.; maintenance 5:00–6:00 p.m. |
| Listed months | Monthly; 41 months listed (Aug 2026–Dec 2029) per calendar API (as of 2026-07-11) |
| Settlement | Cash, financially settled to the CL daily settlement of the corresponding month on MCL's last trading day |
| Last trading / expiry | Terminates one business day prior to the corresponding CL contract's termination (CME education; confirmed by calendar dates) |
| First notice | None (cash-settled; parent CL is physically delivered — FND matters only if backtesting CL itself) |
| Margin | $791 initial / $719 maint. overnight, TradeStation, retrieved 2026-07-11 |
| Volume / OI | 113,469 / 47,253 (2026-07-10 prelim) |
| Micro/full relationship | 1/10 of CL; launched July 12, 2021 (CME launch press release, verified as of 2026-07-11) — no earlier micro history, backtest on CL |
QM — E-mini Crude Oil
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Full name / exchange | E-mini Crude Oil Futures, NYMEX (spec page) |
| Contract size | 500 barrels (1/2 of CL) (Ironbeam spec sheet) |
| Quote / tick | USD/barrel; $0.025 = $12.50 — note the tick is 2.5× coarser than CL/MCL's $0.01 |
| Hours (ET) | Same as MCL |
| Listed months | Monthly; 72 months listed (Aug 2026–Dec 2031) per calendar API (as of 2026-07-11) |
| Settlement | Cash; "settlements … derived directly from the settlements of the regular sized Crude Oil (CL) futures contracts, rounded to the nearest tradable tick" (CME wiki); final settlement = CL settlement of corresponding month |
| Last trading / expiry | Same date as MCL: one business day before CL termination (calendar API, both 20 Jul 2026 for Aug-26) |
| First notice | None |
| Margin | $3,953 initial / $3,594 maint. overnight, TradeStation, retrieved 2026-07-11 |
| Volume / OI | 3,716 / 2,948 (2026-07-10 prelim) |
| Micro/full relationship | 1/2 of CL; legacy e-mini largely superseded by MCL (see below) |
QM vs MCL: which to actually trade
QM IS THE LEGACY CONTRACT — PREFER MCL
On 2026-07-10 MCL traded 113,469 contracts against QM's 3,716 (30× more) with OI 47,253 vs 2,948 (16× more), per the ProductSlate JSON. MCL also has the finer $0.01 tick (QM's minimum increment is $0.025/bbl, so QM's effective spread cost per barrel is structurally wider) and smaller size for position granularity (100 vs 500 bbl; 5 MCL ≈ 1 QM). MCL is unambiguously the practical small-size WTI contract; treat QM as legacy. Both are offered on Wealthsimple, so unlike the metals comparisons this preference is directly actionable. QM remains listed and clears fine, but its book is thin enough that market orders and stop slippage are materially worse than MCL's.
BZ — Brent Crude Oil Last Day Financial
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Full name / exchange | Brent Last Day Financial Futures, NYMEX (spec page) |
| Contract size | 1,000 barrels (Lincoln Park spec sheet; same trading unit as sibling chapter NYMEX Ch. 692) |
| Quote / tick | USD/barrel; $0.01 = $10.00 Globex trading tick (note, verified 2026-07-11: NYMEX Rulebook Ch. 698 sets a finer $0.001/bbl minimum price fluctuation — settlement granularity for the 3-decimal ICE Brent Index; brokers and the spec page quote the $0.01 trading tick) |
| Hours (ET) | Same as MCL/QM |
| Listed months | Monthly; 91 contracts listed (Sep 2026–Mar 2034) per calendar API (as of 2026-07-11) |
| Settlement | Cash. Daily settlements "equivalent to the settlements in the corresponding ICE Brent Crude Oil futures contracts"; final settlement based on the ICE Brent Index published one day after the last trading day (NYMEX Rulebook Ch. 698: "The Floating Price is equal to the ICE Brent Crude Oil Index price as published one day after the final trading day"; the CME wiki carries the daily-settlement equivalence. Calendar shows settlement date = next business day after last trade, e.g. Sep-26: LTD 31 Jul, settle 3 Aug) |
| Last trading / expiry | Last business day of the second month preceding the contract month (calendar-verified; matches ICE Brent expiry convention) |
| First notice | None |
| Margin | Not on TradeStation's table and absent from CME's public margin API (SPAN 2). Proxy: ICE Brent front-month IM $13,038 long / $11,036 short, ICE IRM 2 doc dated 2026-07-11. CME BZ margin: Unknown — verify on CME BZ margins page |
| Volume / OI | 131,054 / 243,206 (2026-07-10 prelim) |
| Micro/full relationship | Full-size (1,000 bbl); no CME micro Brent among our targets. Related CME siblings: BB (Penultimate, settles to ICE Brent 1st nearby on penultimate day, Ch. 692) — 0 volume 2026-07-10 |
BZ is NYMEX-listed Brent, not ICE Brent
BZ REFERENCES ICE — LIQUIDITY LIVES THERE
BZ is a NYMEX/CME contract that financially references ICE Futures Europe's Brent complex — daily marks mirror ICE Brent settlements and final settlement is the ICE Brent Index (CME wiki). Liquidity implications: the primary global Brent liquidity pool and price discovery live on ICE, and CME BZ (131,054 contracts / 243,206 OI on 2026-07-10) is the smaller satellite market — order books are thinner, especially outside US hours, and deferred months lean on the ICE-derived marks rather than local trading. Practical upsides for this project: BZ clears at CME alongside everything else (margin offsets within CME Clearing, one FCM relationship), is covered by the $4.65/mo non-pro CME data bundle instead of a separate ICE data subscription, and — being cash-settled with no EFP/delivery option — never risks the physical-delivery tail that ICE Brent's expiry mechanics carry.