Reality checkSpot prices may be at $70s but futures aka "the strip" are much lower. Closer to 60. It's called backwardation because "normal' is future prices are higher than spot due to storage costs and time value of money. Every oil producer is always using futures or hedges. Nobody sells 100% into the spot market. Remember a year ago when spot prices were actually negative? Spot prices are much much more volatile than "the strip" or longer term contracted pricing. What is driving the massive improvement in oil producer stocks is the massive improvement in all pricing this year vs last year. What's holding stocks down is not trading conspiracies, it's concern that current pricing, not just spot, is vulnerable to a pullback. Every passing month and quarterly report will ease that concern and the whole sector will "catch up" to oil prices eventually. Which one is first or last to catch up is a mugs game, so I use a little basket of names, which currently includes SGY, rather than try and pick "the one". GLTA