One of the great surprises for many investors in commodity-linked equities is just how poorly the stocks track the commodity. Natural gas is no exception. If we take the performance of the Amex Natural Gas Index, or XNG, relative to the Wilshire 5000 over the past decade, we see the XNG had only 80% of the gain of the Wilshire 5000 at a time when wellhead natural gas prices increased by 170%. That may not be the perfect definition of a waste of time, but it is reasonably close thereto. Gas Stocks Don't Light A Fire Source: Bloomberg