You ARE getting a lotta bang for your buck. If you can trade the CL (or ER2 for that matter), the grains should be a cinch.
Today is a good example. Even a fool could have taken a cent or two out of any of the big three....and bigger fools, like me
even more!
The reason I mainly trade the grains versus the indices is that they are affordable (at most brokers) and have the same tick/point value as the ES, with a greater daily range.
And they're more manageable as they respond to technical analysis more readily. But like all futures, they're susceptible to fundamentals - and that means Economic Reports.
If you're not holding overnight or swing/position trading, you should be fine, as the limit moves won't affect you. I always try to wait a few minutes after opening to gauge the sentiment of the market before jumping in anyway, so I haven't been burned yet.
Plus the hours (10:30a-2:15p ET) allow you time to tend to other things like banking in the AM, golfing in the PM, etc....
Read up on it...those two links I posted above should give you plenty of perspective. And always keep your stops in place, just in case.