NYMEX contracts on 42,000 gallons of reformulated gasoline blendstock for oxygenate blending, delivered in New York Harbor and quoted in dollars per gallon.
RBOB is not finished petrol. It is the blendstock refiners produce before ethanol is added, which is why the contract name specifies "for oxygenate blending". The tick is $0.0001 per gallon, worth $4.20 per contract.
Gasoline has a pronounced summer driving season and a specification change: summer-grade blendstock has lower volatility and costs more to make, so the September-to-October spread routinely gaps as the grade switches. Refinery outages on the Gulf Coast move it faster than anything in crude.
Example: RBOB at $2.45 a gallon is $102,900 per contract. In crack-spread terms, $2.45 x 42 = $102.90 a barrel against WTI at $78.00 gives a gasoline crack of $24.90.
Original diagrams for the ideas on this page. Illustrative, not real market data.
The bid-ask spread. Buy orders sit below, sell orders above, and the gap between the best bid (50.01) and best ask (50.04) is the spread you pay to cross. Bar length shows the size resting at each price.
Educational only, not advice. Spotted an error? Post in Site Feedback.