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As tracked by the price of WTI, crude oil which serves as one of the main global oil benchmarks, crude oil has climbed from the recent $65 to less than $80 per barrel trading range. A few weeks ago, the WTI price rose above $80, and recent trading shows that level might become a new floor. Even a massive build in crude inventories did not push the price below $80.

Energy producers will be highly profitable with a price floor of $80 per barrel. The S&P energy sector was a top performer in the first quarter, and that was with oil trading in the $70s. Energy sector stocks of all stripes should do well in the second quarter.

Here’s a high-yield way to play this.

In my newsletter services, I recommend upstream, midstream, and downstream energy producers. Each group has its own characteristics and investment prospects. I prefer owning subsector-specific companies rather than large multi-national energy stocks.

I also like and recommend investments that have direct exposure to commodity prices. The handful of energy play royalty companies pay dividends that directly reflect the changing prices of crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids (NGLs).

I also recommend one more derivatives-based investment that pays an attractive dividend yield based on the volatility of crude oil prices. The Credit Suisse X-Links Crude Oil Shares Covered Call ETN (USOI) generates returns based on a covered call strategy using a long position in the United States Oil Fund (USO) and selling monthly call options with strike prices of approximately 6% out of the money.

As an exchange-traded note (ETN), USOI shares are unsecured debt obligations of the issuer, Credit Suisse. Note: Last year, Credit Suisse was acquired by UBS, providing a high level of security to the Credit Suisse line of ETNs.

USOI shares track the notional value of USO and pay monthly distributions based on notional call option prices.

So what does this mean:

USOI has a share price that tracks the value of crude oil and pays very attractive monthly dividends. The current indicative yield is 22%.

USOI has performed well in the longer term. For my ETF Income Edge service, I track over 50 ETFs that employ different option trading strategies. USOI has the best three-year performance, returning 77% to investors.

This ETN rounds out our investments across the energy sector.

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