The Third Largest Oil ETN Is Liquidating

Having seen its share of gratuitous use over the years, now may be the best time ever to pull up the infamous Martha Stewart tweet:

OiI

— Martha Stewart (@MarthaStewart) April 22, 2013

The reason is that while the largest crude oil ETF, the USO, which had just over $4.2 billion in assets as of yesterday has avoided liquidation for now, and instead converted itself into a close-end fund by suspending the sale of creation baskets, one of its biggest peers failed to avoid collapse after oil prices plunged to negative for the first time ever, and on Tuesday morning, Barclays announced that it would “exercise its issuer call option” and redeem in full the “OIL” Crude Oil ETN, which is the third largest oil-related ETF (second if one ignores the UCO which is a 2x levered USO).

Needless to say, the fund has seen better days…

… and now all those who lost about 80% of their investment in the past few weeks, well they are now getting a few pennies on their dollar.

So what happens next? Barclays – who suckered in thousands of retail investors and is now giving them a small portfion of their investment as it closes up OIL shop – explains.

Holders of the ETNs on the Redemption Date will receive a cash payment per ETN equal to the closing indicative value of the ETNs (as defined in the prospectus relating to the ETNs) on April 23, 2020 (the “Valuation Date”), the fifth business day prior to the Redemption Date.

Additionally, Barclays announces that it will suspend any further sales and issuance of the ETNs, effective today, April 20, 2020. This suspension may cause fluctuations in the trading value of such ETNs. Daily redemptions at the option of the holders of the ETNs will not be affected by this suspension. Barclays’ lending activities from the existing inventory with respect to the ETNs will also not be affected by this suspension.

And to think that all of this could have been avoided if only the Fed would purchase OIL, not the commodity but the ETN. Powell, are you listening, because if not soon every single investment will end like this: