Shares in Tullow Oil have traded as high as 460p and as low as 154p in the past 12-months. 20,000 Tullow Oil shares can be bought for around £44,000. If the share price were to make it back only far as October highs of 270p, that implies 27% potential upside should a trader go long the stock using conventional shares while a re-visit of 52 week highs would return a massive 117%.

If the price were to fall back to 52 week lows of 154p, however, a long position would be out of the money to the tune of 27%. Traditional shares only permit long positions, but with CFDs you can speculate just as easily on falling prices. So if you thought that Tullow Oil might be about to face some unpleasant business conditions, you could go short. In that case, if the share price fell back to its 52 week lows you could still stand to profit handsomely.

The percentage gains and/or losses indicated above and on the chart are based on full exposure to Tullow Oil shares. To trade Tullow Oil using a CFD requires a deposit of 5%; 20,000 Tullow Oil shares can currently be secured with Accendo Markets for just £2,189 – the same exposure as traditional shares, the same potential profit or loss but for a fraction of the outlay.

Wherever one invests, one does so in the belief that the market will move in one’s favour. That said, it is of course extremely useful to consider the potential worst case scenario and allocate extra funds as you deem necessary to cover that possibility, but you can see that by working with Accendo Markets your profit potential and trading flexibility are greatly increased while dealing costs are much lower.

With all this in mind, we’ve compiled some of our most popular Oil & Gas stocks below, summarising their year-to-date trading ranges, potential price targets and the deposit requirement to secure shares. Some are small cap E&P stocks that aren’t the most liquid, but are prone to large price swings while others are more heavily traded blue chip oil majors whose prices often change by a few percent intraday.

Please note that the following trade ideas are designed to give you an indication of the potential behaviour of Oil & Gas stocks given the market conditions present at the time. The pricing data is correct as at the time of writing.