Oil ETFs Devour Cash As Retail Investors Try To Pick A Bottom

July was the worst month for oil prices since the financial crisis. The price of WTI crude plunged 21% during the month, the worse single-day decline since 2008. Unfortunately, July was also the month that saw record inflows from retail investors into ETFs that track the price of oil.

Last month investors poured $821 million into the United States Oil Fund ETF, which tracks the performance of WTI crude, according to ETF.com. That's not bad for a fund with $2.5 billion in assets.

Further, the VelocityShares 3X Long Crude Oil ETN (UWTI), a leveraged instrument that aims to provides three times the exposure to the swings in oil, saw inflows rise to $653 million -- once again an enormous sum in...