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by dynode 4114 days ago
Is investing in a company like exxon a good proxy for oil price?
2 comments

No, it's not.

An integrated oil company like Exxon has activities that lose money when the price of oil goes down (drilling, exploitation) and others that make more (refining, retail). The price of oil dropped by about half during the past few months; Exxon barely budged.

A better proxy for oil price could be drillers (Diamond Offshore Drilling for example) but they're very far from perfect either. In general, it is very hard to track an asset which price is expected to be mean-reverting like the price of oil.

Not really. A company is always way more complex.