This is part two of a four part series this week that looks at commodity ETFs and ETNs. For the first installment that covered index-based offerings, see this item from yesterday.

Today, attention turns to energy commodities where the effects of contango earlier in the year are on vivid display as the year-to-date gains on unleveraged crude oil investments now range from an astonishing -4.7 percent to +19.1 percent.
(Note: All year-to-date gains/losses are based on the May 22nd market close (last Friday) and the commodity offerings are listed in the order that they became available.)

There are now a total of ten "oil-only" offerings, three ETFs and seven ETNs, the oldest and largest - United States Oil Fund, LP ETF (NYSEArca:USO) - being one of the worst performers for those holding it any length of time. Its modest 1.8 percent gain in 2009 is at odds with the 38 percent increase in the price of crude oil so far this year, a fact that doesn't seem to bother too many individuals as it has almost $3 billion in assets.

Presumably, holders of USO are all traders as you'd have to be a fool to take this kind of punishment over the long-haul when there are so many other better alternatives. Topping the list of alternatives is the PowerShares DB Oil Fund ETF (NYSEArca:DBO) which makes use of a futures contract replacement strategy that reduces the negative effects of contango, its 19.1 percent year-to-date gain being just over half that of crude oil, but an impressive accomplishment nonetheless given the extreme conditions that existed a few months ago.

To address the poor performance of their flagship fund, the folks who run USO launched another "oil-only" ETF back in late 2007 that spreads the purchases of futures contract out over an entire year - United States 12 Month Oil Fund, LP ETF (NYSEArca:USL).