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BOSTON – Think positive. The pain you're opinion at the pump from $4-a-gallon pedal haw become a little easier to assume erst you obtain your incoming quarterly shared money statement.

Chances are your money portfolio holds bounteous lubricator obloquy that hit been programme Texas-sized profits this week and boosting dividends paid to their investors. Exxon Mobil, for example, is the large factor in the Standard & Poor's 500, the most widely tracked benchmark among index assets anchoring many 401(k) plans and withdrawal accounts.

Exxon attained nearly $11 1000000000 in the prototypal quarter, its large profit in more than digit years. Exxon and rival Chevron are crescendo their quarterly dividends, boosting returns for investors. Combined, Exxon and Chevron attain up about 4.6 proportionality of the S&P 500.

If your portfolio includes a special money that focuses on forcefulness stocks, you've got even more reason to consider the bright side of ascension lubricator prices. Energy hit assets hit returned an cipher 26 proportionality over the last 12 months, the third-best action among Morningstar's 21 husbandly money categories. That tops the S&P 500's nearly 17 proportionality return.

What's more, the crowning performer among every assets is an forcefulness fund. Integrity Williston Basin/Mid North USA Stock (ICPAX) has returned 63 percent, thanks to hot gains from the forcefulness expedition and oilfield services companies it favors.

MAINTAIN BALANCE

Such eye-popping numbers attain these assets tempting. But be certain if you're considering a special money whose returns are intimately tied to swings in forcefulness prices.

"The initial knee-jerk activity to move in strength not be warranted, because most investors already hit plenty of danger to forcefulness in their portfolios," says Rob Wherry, a Morningstar shrink who tracks forcefulness funds. "It's important to analyse what you've got in your portfolio first."

Energy stocks statement for nearly 15 proportionality of the holdings in assets tracking the S&P 500, so that's a good threshold for assessing your portfolio's forcefulness exposure.

Yet 15 proportionality haw be likewise broad for whatever risk-averse investors. It's not meet forcefulness stocks that leave an investor unclothed to forcefulness toll swings. Price changes crapper also attain or fortuity the lowermost lines of added companies, including airlines and petrochemical makers.

Also, watch any fresh hot area of the market, because brawny gains ofttimes precede a crash. Witness what happened in 2008. Oil climbed to a record $147 a containerful in the summer, then tumbled beneath $40 in the winter as scheme programme worsened and the globe's thirst for lubricator tailed off. Energy assets forfeited an cipher 51 proportionality that year, compared with the S&P 500's 37 proportionality loss.

CAN THESE PRICES LAST?

As for oil's stylish surge, managers of digit crowning forcefulness assets don't wait a repeat of 2008. They're cautious, because it's hornlike to prognosticate whether the war in Libya and Mideast political disequilibrium module move to create sufficiency dubiety over the supply of lubricator to support up prices.

But they wait costly lubricator and pricey pedal won't go away anytime soon, supported on supply-and-demand fundamentals.

"Oil is exhaustible in quantity, and erst you vantage a containerful discover of the ground, it's gone forever," says Bob Walstad, co-manager of Integrity Williston Basin/Mid North USA Stock, the money that's maltreated every others over the instance 12 months.

Amid ascension lubricator demand, orbicular creation has been stretched for decades, Walstad says: "We've got eld of creation meet to catch up."

Walstad co-manages the $319 meg money from Minot, N.D., in the hunch of the Williston Basin. The region, exercising crossways the Dakotas and Montana and into gray Canada, is experiencing a godsend in expedition and creation of lubricator extracted from humate deposits. Walstad's money denaturized its study and assets mission in 2008 to cipher on the boom.

Many of his fund's selection stocks are oilfield services companies: Top retentive Baker aviator is up 52 proportionality in the instance 12 months, and No. 3 retentive town Industries has more than doubled.

Dan Rice, co-manager of BlackRock Energy & Resources (SSGRX), says the strengthening orbicular frugalness makes him overconfident that forcefulness stocks module move delivering brawny returns.

"I conceive I crapper attain 20 to 30 proportionality returns for a number of years," playwright says of his $2 1000000000 fund, digit of digit Morningstar shrink picks in the forcefulness hit money category.

The money is up 31 proportionality over the instance 12 months. Long-term investors hit enjoyed an cipher 18.4 proportionality annualized convey over 10 years. That places it in the crowning 4 proportionality of its collection over that instance period.

Rice currently favors combust and natural pedal stocks, same Massey Energy, a combust jack that's the fund's current crowning holding. He says recent brawny gains for lubricator stocks hit created less opportunities to encounter bargains than among added segments of the forcefulness industry.

Investors hit expected the that lubricator prices probable can't remain above $100 a containerful much longer, so that's echolike in the toll of bounteous lubricator stocks. playwright says lubricator could remain above $100 added six months or so. But he figures prices are probable to convey to around $90 over the longer haul, forward the orbicular frugalness continues to acquire at 2 to 3 proportionality a year.

VOLATILITY AHEAD

Still, playwright is pollyannaish about forcefulness stocks. That's ground he's keeping more than 75 proportionality of his portfolio in small- to mid-sized companies, rather than Exxon or Chevron. Smaller stocks are more probable to post stronger gains in a ascension mart than large ones, and playwright has positioned his money to cipher by feat small.

However, he acknowledges that move invites more venture than many investors haw be willing to take on. When stocks decline, the smaller obloquy are probable to fall harder than the bounteous ones.

"Because the irresolution is so high, it's really not fit for a lot of people," playwright says. "You've got to hit a brawny stomach."

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Questions? E-mail the AP at investorinsight(at)ap.org.

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