OILK vs UNL

OILKAProShares K-1 Free Crude Oil ETF

UNLFUnited States 12 Month Natural Gas Fund, LP

In short

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%.

UNL Natural gas without the front-month tunnel vision. Since 2009, UNL has tracked an equally weighted ladder of 12 consecutive NYMEX gas futures, spreading the roll across a year instead of riding the next contract alone.

Stated mandate

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

UNL UNL seeks to reflect changes in the spot price of natural gas delivered at Henry Hub, Louisiana, using an equally weighted average of 12 consecutive natural-gas futures contracts, plus collateral interest and less expenses.

Why people hold it

• 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.

• UNL The ladder is the point: 12 consecutive monthly contracts, equally weighted, so roughly a twelfth of the book rolls at a time instead of the whole position every month.sec.gov
• The target is unambiguous: the spot price of natural gas at Henry Hub, Louisiana, measured through those 12 futures. Passive and rules-based, with no manager calls on gas.sec.gov
• Trading since 2009 through several gas cycles, and USCF runs the same 12-month ladder on the oil side (USL), so the structure is well worn rather than experimental.sec.gov

Worth knowing

• 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

• UNL The fee runs 1.65% a year, the high end for energy futures pools, and this is a small fund next to front-month names in the group like OILK and USO.
• A commodity pool limited partnership, not a 1940 Act fund, so tax time brings a Schedule K-1 instead of a 1099.uscfinvestments.com
• The ladder cuts both ways: spreading across a year softens roll costs and also softens how much a sharp move in front-month gas shows up in the fund.sec.gov

Full OILK profile⁠

Full UNL profile⁠