West Texas Intermediate (WTI), also known as Texas light sweet, is a grade of crude oil used as a benchmark in oil pricing. NYMEX WTI also has deep ties to energy markets worldwide as gasoline and diesel fuel. Crude oil markets offer opportunities in nearly all market conditions but can be highly volatile. Several factors impact prices making price risk management critical. NYMEX WTI futures offer direct exposure to the oil market, a key advantage over other ways to trade, whether you’re looking to hedge risk or speculate on where oil prices are headed. This grade is described as light because of its relatively low density, and sweet because of its low sulfur content. WTI is a light crude oil, with an API gravity of around 39.6 and specific gravity of about 0.827, which is lighter than Brent crude. It contains about 0.24% sulfur thus is rated as a sweet crude oil (having less than 0.5% sulfur), sweeter than Brent which has 0.37% sulfur. WTI is refined mostly in the Midwest and Gulf Coast regions in the United States Mixture of naturally occurring hydrocarbons that is refined into diesel, gasoline, heating oil, jet fuel, kerosene, and literally thousands of other products called petrochemicals. Crude oils are named according to their contents and origins, and classified according to their per unit weight (specific gravity). Heavier crudes yield more heat upon burning, but have lower API gravity and market price in comparison to light (or sweet) crudes.