TOCOM oil in USD
TOCOM Crude is a cash-settled blend of Oman and Dubai crude oil, both quoted in USD.  The daily settlement price is mark to market, but the final settlement price is based on reported prices from Dubai and Oman (or calculated in some cases with a known procedure), averaged and then converted to Yen using monthly average exchange rates as published by a reference bank (see Detailed Rules) You're trying to go all the way back and unfuddle quotes into a blend of USD-quoted oils.  The correct procedure here would be to go with the Oman and Dubai prices in the first place (unless you're trying to arbitrage the TOCOM market). As to why they do it this way?  It's a service.  TOCOM takes on all the challenges to provide customers with a steady and consistent way of trading cash-oil.  For physical oil, all you'd have to do is buy the blend on Dubai's and Oman's spot market.  You trust TOCOM's price finding process, i.e. there will be no discrepancies between your TOCOM cash-oil and the Middle East physical oil. Edit: As to why Japan isn't buying WTI directly:  There's a considerable cost of carry.  WTI delivery location is Cushing, OK; there are pipelines but it's still a logistics act to get the oil to a port on the West Coast and then have it shipped to Japan.  Dubai's delivery is at Jebel Ali (Persian Gulf), Omani crude can be shipped straight from Mina Al Fahal.  Not only is it a shorter trip but also there are more shipping companies specialised in oil deliveries to the Asian hotspots. Why they pay in USD?  Persian oil is highly sought after in nearly all of Asia's economies but there's little other exported goods from there.  So naturally the market for currency crosses (AEDJPY, OMRJPY, AEDINR, OMRINR, etc.) is not that liquid.  At least not as liquid as to make buying Persian oil a smooth deal.  Anyway, both Dubai and Oman chose to follow Western practice to quote their contracts in USD and (maybe because of liquidity concerns) also to accept USD for payment only.
December, 7, 2011 ( 01:50 pm) :-  Bullion are sparked at the late or and session of MCX &amp; Comex.  USA investors are not worried about the coming events because European leaders signals that IMF providing help for European countries who are facing financial crisis.  Crude oil momentum also range bound whole day, a rising tension on the Iran exports resistance will trigger oil prices will at new high.  Silver have strong resistance at $ 33.20 above this level it's trend bullish under this its trend totally down.  Gold have strong resistance at $ 1742 above this trend totally bullish side &amp; unless its in down trend. What you want is the distribution yield, which is 2.65. You can see the yield on FT as well, which is listed as 2.64. The difference between the 2 values is likely to be due to different dates of updates. http://funds.ft.com/uk/Tearsheet/Summary?s=CORP:LSE:USD &gt; Arguably, the dollar today is essentially backed by oil i.e. as economists say the 'petrodollar'.  This isn't really true. The exchange rate between USD and a barrel of oil floats with the market whereas it was fixed with gold.  Also by the nature of the way oil is consumed it doesn't make sense to think of it this way - gold retains state when used whereas oil is burnt up never to be seen again. I think this could be a even bigger problem for us since dollar is not just the international curreny for oil but for like mostly everything. This trend could be pushed by china and russia for other stuff to which is terrible for US. This is no big deal, IMO. The only real advantage is that I can think of is that if oil is priced in your currency then you're not subject to foreign currency fluctuations dictating your energy costs.   In the short term USD has been falling. If this trend continues and oil switches to yuan, then our energy will become more expensive. "US is the major oil consumer, and produces only about half as much - so the lower the prices, the better for it.   As for the oil industry in the US - it will never fail since government just prints more money to prop it up regardless of its real economic effectiveness: it needs it to defang OPEC from being able to pull off another 1974 Oil Embargo. Hell, Gore even invented the ""global warming"" just for that purpose!" EFA must be bought and sold in US dollars. XIN allows people to buy and sell EFA in Canadian dollars without exposing their investment to unpredictable swings in the USD/CAD ratio.  This is what's known as a currency-hedged instrument. Now, why the chart sums up to over 100% is anyone's guess.  Presumably it's the result of a couple hundred rounding errors from all the components.  If you view their most recent report, it also sums up to over 100%, but at least the EFA component is (sensibly) under 100%. P.S. I'm not seeing where it says there's only one holding.  There's the primary holding, plus over 100 other cash holdings to effect the currency-hedging. As the value of a currency declines, commodities, priced in that currency, will rise. The two best commodities to see a change in would be oil and gold. Swaps form backstop to a shit load of int'l trade. Liquidity of currency is a huge factor in being a govt reserve currency, which USD currently has the VAST majority of holdings. This agreement is a shove against USE dominance in trade settlements, which is negative. Also challenges us general capital markets dominance a bit "No. Suppose you have 100 Canadian dollars and the exchange rate is 2 CAD = 1 USD.  You use your 100 CAD to purchase 50 USD (in your bank account that is in USD).  Some time later the Canadian dollar grows stronger, so that now 1 CAD = 1 USD.  If you now withdraw your 50 USD and get Canadian dollars, you will receive 50 CAD.  You have lost half your money. If you want to make money on currency exchange rates (which is a risky plan), you should buy the currency that is cheap (i.e., ""weak"").  If, say, oil is very cheap, you don't make money by selling oil; you buy it and sell it later when the price goes up.  Likewise, if the Canadian dollar isn't worth much and the US dollar is, you should buy Canadian dollars, not US dollars, hoping to sell them later when the exchange rate is more favorable.  See also this similar question." "That oil is traded in USD makes for extra demand and thus a stronger dollar with more purchasing power. It's not really economics that are the issue though - many might argue a weakened dollar might help the US economy (cheaper exports).  The real issue is power. These gold backed securities make it so that certain countries can get around US sanctions.  Not to mention that controlling the currency that oil is traded in means the US can devalue their currency to gain an advantage in the event of a shortage.  Also, because petroleum is traded in dollars, this means treasury bonds are a natural place to store wealth for oil producers. High demand for these bonds makes it cheap for the US government to borrow and easier to make interest payments thus making T-Bonds a ""safe"" asset." You can buy the exchange traded fund ETFS WTI Crude Oil (CRUD), amongst other ETFS products. http://funds.ft.com/uk/Tearsheet/Summary?s=CRUD:LSE:USD Note these funds do not 'jump' when the crude oil futures contracts are in contango (e.g. June contract is priced higher than May) and the futures roll-over, as they do monthly.  When this happens the EFTS continues with no movement.  Currently May is $52.85 and June is $54.15 (so in contango).  LSE:CRUD is $13.40 and if the crude oil futures rolled-over it would carry straight on at that value.  For this reason one should be cautious buying and holding LSE:CRUD longterm. China does not use dollar for their largest oil buy, Russia, Iran.  They also have yuan swap agreement with their large trading partners like Korea, japan, EU.  Basically, the only trade that will be critically affected will be north america and latin america. China's critical trade in Eurasia are all in  non dollar already.  China has built, its own international payment system, central bank swap agreements, SWIFT alternative, largest commodity market, and various free trade agreements and zones.   20% of US import is chinese goods, mainly consumer product and electrical machines. So that will be interesting.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_trading_partners_of_China "It's standard to price oil in US$.  That means that if the US$ gets stronger, the prices of oil drops even if its ""intrinsic value"" remains constant.  Same thing happens for other commodities, such as gold.  Think of the oil price in barrels/$.  If the denominator (value of the $) goes up, then the ratio tends to go down." Then, is it possible to deposit rubles at the same ATM to get USD in my account at the same rate? No this is not possible. Generally deposits into accounts outside country and not offered.