Crude Oil and Natural Gas Chart, Support and Trendlines

The Chart above shows Crude oil support levels at $100 a barrel and $87.71 a barrel. The 50% and 61.8% retracement from the three year lows matches horizontal resistance, which is good validation.

The bottom chart shows the ratio of Crude Oil to Natural Gas. We see the trend line of this ratio. If the ratio of Crude Oil to Natural goes back to trendline (around 12:1), then that means either Crude Oil continues to drop or Natural Gas increases or a combination of both.

Today's Chart

Don't Whine About Oil Prices, Profit from It (Or at least Hedge)

In today's CNBC Show "Mad Money", Jim Cramer tells viewers to try to profit from increasing oil prices rather than "freak" out over the price of gasoline.

Jim Cramer pointed out three reasons why oil prices are high:

1. Oil Fields are Drying Up
   
2. It is more difficult to find new oil and get it out of the ground.
   
3. Demand for oil is growing very fast especially in China, India and the rest of the Developing World.

Jim Cramer then used this introduction as a way to introduce some wildcat companies, those companies who are looking for oil.

Hedging For the ETF Investor

Some investors may be mainly ETF investors, and choose not to spend time picking individual stocks.

One way to hedge or profit against rising oil prices is to invest in the ETF with the symbol "USO". USO has a high correlation to the price of oil. USO mainly reflects "the spot price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) light, sweet crude oil."

For the Stock Picker

For the stock picker, there are many ways to profit from rising oil prices.

We highlighted the different ways and selected companies in Part 1 of the Long Term Trends: Energy, Oil, Coal, Nuclear, and Cleanup.