ThePanelist.com - Do You Unknowingly Invest in Exxon Mobil (XOM)?

Do You Unknowingly Invest in Exxon Mobil (XOM)?

Written by Miranda Marquit

Monday, 24 March 2008

You might be surprised to learn what your investment portfolio really looks like.

Lately, one of the growing trends in investing has been environmentally-friendly investing. There are, of course, many definitions of environmental and ethical investing. However, many environmentally-friendly investors agree that most Big Oil companies do not fit into this category. (Increasingly, biofuels are falling out of favor with environmentally-friendly investing as well.) But, no matter their intentions, some of those who consider themselves to be environmentally-friendly investors may be unknowingly investing in Big Oil. Tulsa Today points this out about investment portfolios:

If you have mutual funds, stock market funds, or if you have a pension fund, a 401-K, an IRA, or even a bank account, you are invested in the big oil companies because these companies have had the greatest return on investments.

The more money a person has invested in the various financial markets, the more money they have tied up in the big oil companies. And pension funds routinely put that money in stocks that have the biggest return.

This is, of course, an interesting view. You may not want to invest in Exxon (XOM), Chevron (CVX), BP (BP) and ConocoPhillips (COP), but you may be doing so anyway.

Volatile times like these make it increasingly clear how important it is to know what's in your investment portfolio. You don't have to check obsessively, but it's good to periodically review your holdings and decide what's good to keep and what you should move on from. And if environmentally-friendly investing is your thing, it might be time do a little housecleaning.

Disclosure: I invest in none of the companies listed above.

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written by David Neubert , April 01, 2008

Another way would be to go ahead and buy the oil companies and pro-actively use your power as a shareholder to try to change management.

Disclosure: I own all the oil companies you mention except Exxon. I also own some SPY (which is 3% XOM), I own some DIA (which is about 4% XOM).

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Miranda Marquit
		About the author:
		Miranda is journalistically trained freelance writer who enjoys working out of her home nestled in the beautiful Cache Valley in Utah.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 24 March 2008 )