CME Group has introduced a 10-barrel West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures contract, reducing the position size and capital needed to trade oil futures. At current prices, one contract represents about $860 of crude, compared with 100 barrels for CME's Micro WTI contract and 1,000 barrels for its standard contract. The launch follows years of wider retail access through online brokerage platforms, exchange-traded funds and smaller derivatives in an oil market worth about $3 trillion. Retail oil activity has increased sharply during market stress, with eToro recording nearly 16 times as many oil trades in the three months after the war began on Feb. 28, according to market analyst Zavier Wong. CME said its Micro WTI futures averaged 272,000 contracts a day in May, a 317% year-over-year increase. Analysts say the smaller contract could broaden participation and add liquidity, but emotional retail flows could also amplify short-term price moves and complicate price discovery. Professional and commercial participants, including state producers, major energy companies, commodity merchants and large industrial consumers, remain dominant in benchmark pricing, while production, consumption, inventories and geopolitics remain the principal forces behind crude prices.