The change is the difference between the most recent price and the previous trading day's settlement price (similar to a stock quote). So basically it's the difference between what you would pay now for a guaranteed delivery around Sept 8, and what you would have paid at the end of the day yesterday for the same Sept 8 delivery of one gallon of heating oil (or whatever commodity).
Maybe you'll find this more useful. It has charts. http://www.nymex.com/ho_fut_cso.aspx http://www.nymex.com/ho_fut_condet.aspx?product=HO&month=Sep&cmonth=U&year=8&currPrev=C I'm not sure this will help you make a decision, unless you understand the market and know how to predict it. Just keep in mind that the market has already taken into account all of the available information in setting the price. You also probably have no way of knowing what the oil company is basing their price on (unless they tell you). But if they made the offer before mid-July, it could be a bad deal - the price has clearly dropped since then, even if it is hard to predict what it will do tomorrow. Please note that I am not a financial professional or advisor. As for the original question about whether heating oil will drop like gasoline, take a look at these two charts for October for both, which you will probably notice are almost the same: http://www.nymex.com/ho_fut_condet.aspx?product=HO&month=Oct&cmonth=V&year=8&currPrev=C http://www.nymex.com/RB_fut_condet.aspx?product=RB&month=Oct&cmonth=V&year=8&currPrev=C You might also like to look at spot price charts. Those are the prices for buying now for "immediate" delivery. It also happens to look about the same. That means the price changes are hitting futures and spot prices for both gas and oil at the same time, which makes sense. I'm sure you can use one to predict the other, but the market can do that a lot faster than you can. http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/twip/twip.asp -- Rich ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tony Del Plato" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Sustainable Tompkins County listserv" <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2008 9:46 PM Subject: Re: [SustainableTompkins] price of home heating oil > What period of time does the change indicate in the Bloomberg graph? > Unless > I missed it, that info wasn't available. It would be more informative if > the > report indicated that the change has been over the past 6mos - year. > Tony Del Plato > > On Thu, Aug 21, 2008 at 1:18 PM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> Check this web site and then decide if you want to lock in the price: >> http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/commodities/energyprices.html >> >> >> Mark J. Darling >> Supervisor >> Recycling/Resource Mgt. Programs >> 201 Facilities Building >> Ithaca, NY 14850 >> 607.274.1777 >> www.ithaca.edu/remp _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
