United States Commodity Fund’s exchange-traded fund United States Heating Oil Fund is to be known as United States Diesel-Heating Oil Fund (UHN), effective 1 August 2012.
Chief investment officer John Hyland says: “Recently the CME/NYMEX announced changes to the long established heating oil futures contract to make it a better physical match for diesel fuel. We have changed the name of our fund to better reflect the actual uses of the heating oil futures contract.”
The investment objective of UHN remains the same.
United States Diesel-Heating Oil Fund is an exchange-traded product that seeks to reflect the performance of the daily price movements of heating oil. The investment objective of UHN has been, and still is, for the daily changes in percentage terms of its units’ net asset value to reflect the daily changes in percentage terms of the near month heating oil futures contract traded on the NYMEX (New York Mercantile Exchange), less UHN’s expenses. UHN issued units may be purchased and sold on the NYSE Arca.
In April, the CME, which operates the NYMEX, announced a pending change in the physical specifications of the physical heating oil that their futures contracts represent. The change reduces the allowable amount of sulphur in heating oil down to the current levels allowable in diesel fuel, and eliminates the major physical difference between heating oil and diesel, as traded in the US.
In announcing these changes, the CME stated: “Following the transition to lower sulphur specifications, the heating oil futures contract will serve as a dual-use price benchmark for both the heating oil and on-road diesel markets. It will also more closely match diesel specifications in international markets, including the European ultra-low sulphur diesel market.”
