DBO vs OILK

DBOBInvesco DB Oil Fund

OILKAProShares K-1 Free Crude Oil ETF

In short

DBO Oil exposure with a roll rule. DBO tracks a WTI crude futures index whose Optimum Yield design shops across contract months instead of camping in the front month, and it has run that way since 2007.

OILK The only crude oil ETF that spares you a Schedule K-1. OILK sends a 1099 instead, and its index spreads WTI futures across three roll schedules rather than camping in the front month. All-in cost: 0.70%.

Stated mandate

DBO The fund seeks to track positive or negative changes in the level of the DBIQ Optimum Yield Crude Oil Index Excess Return.

OILK The Fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the Bloomberg Commodity Balanced WTI Crude Oil IndexSM.

Why people hold it

• DBO The index picks the contract month its rules score as most favorable rather than automatically buying the nearest one, a design built to soften the drag of an upward-sloping futures curve.invesco.com
• Charges 0.81% a year, meaningfully below the median for energy-futures funds in its group.
• Launched in 2007 and traded through multiple oil booms and busts, it sits in the upper half of a small, well-known peer group.

• OILK At 0.70%, the cheapest of the headline oil-futures funds: USO charges 0.86%, USL 1.01%, DBO 0.81%, none of them waiver-assisted.
• A 1940 Act fund that holds its futures through a Cayman subsidiary capped at 25% of assets each quarter-end, so tax time brings a 1099, not a partnership K-1.proshares.comproshares.com 2
• Its index splits WTI exposure evenly across a monthly roll, a June annual roll and a December annual roll, resetting each March and September, diluting front-month roll costs.bbhub.io
• Trading since 2016 and one of the stronger implementations in a small energy-futures peer group.

Worth knowing

• DBO It's a commodity pool, so tax paperwork follows partnership rules rather than ordinary fund reporting. Peer OILK charges 0.69% and is built to skip that step.
• You own a futures index, not a barrel. Results track the DBIQ Optimum Yield Crude Oil Index Excess Return and can diverge from headline spot crude.
• One commodity, one curve. There are no operating businesses underneath to cushion a move in crude, and payouts come on an annual or semiannual schedule.

• OILK Tracks a futures index, not spot WTI. ProShares says plainly it should be expected to perform very differently from the spot price of WTI crude.proshares.com
• One commodity, one curve: the portfolio is a few WTI futures positions plus cash-like collateral, so it moves with oil and nothing else.proshares.com
• Income, if any, is paid monthly and comes largely from collateral yield, so the amount moves around rather than acting like a fixed coupon.proshares.com

Full DBO profile⁠

Full OILK profile⁠