Hedge Fund Sees 31% Gain From Oil-Stock Bet Before Prices Surged

Old West Investment Management went all in on energy stocks when oil was trading around $60 a barrel, Nicolás Maduro was still president of Venezuela and the prospect of a Middle East conflict that would send the world into a crisis was still only a distant worst-case scenario.

By the end of February, even before the Iran war sent energy prices soaring, the wager had driven the firm’s flagship fund to a 31% return this year — just not entirely for the reasons that its chief investment officer expected.