View from the Observation Deck

1. If you want insight into the oil industry there are better ways than the nightly news. Follow the number of active rigs. A simple Web search for the Baker Hughes active rig count (U.S. or World) should locate it for you.
2. Crude oil prices rose from $19.48 per barrel on 1/31/02 to $98.48 on 1/31/12. Over that 10-year span, the number of active rigs rose from 2,016 to 3,751 worldwide.
3. Notice how the number of active rigs plunged during the 2008 global credit crisis and U.S. recession? The price of a barrel of oil plunged from $145.29 on 7/3/08 to a 2008 low of $33.87 on 12/19/08, according to data from Bloomberg.
4. Even if one isn't familiar with how the price of oil can be influenced by the Fed's monetary policy, wars in the Middle East, or investors speculating in the futures market, they can count on the number of active rigs to paint a reasonably accurate picture.