If I just wanted a ticker symbol for the price of oil to put on a 'market health' dashboard, with no intention of actually investing in the ETF at all, would USO suffice?
This, unfortunately (or for some, fortunately) requires understanding the structure of the Oil market and how Oil is bought, sold, delivered and transported and yes stored! Spot prices, futures, oil grades, hubs, contango, etc.
[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-30/investors... [2] https://oilprice.com/oil-price-charts
USO has unpredictable drift due to contract rolling and often trades at a significant premium/discount to NAV.