ATP Oil & Gas Shares Plunged: What You Need to Know

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of ATP Oil & Gas (NAS: ATPG) fell 10% well after trading began today as oil and gas shares fell.

So what: This was really more of a move hitting oil and gas stocks more than it was anything specific to ATP Oil & Gas. Comstock Resources (NYS: CRK) , MGX Resources (NYS: GMXR) , and ATP all traded lower in similar patterns as the price of oil fell.

Now what: There's a lot going on in the market affecting these companies, but falling oil prices were the biggest factor today. Oil is down 1.3% as I write this, because traders are fretting about the economy and the future demand for oil. As usual, these stocks are really leveraged bets on the price of oil; with oil down it's no surprise they're trading lower today.

Interested in more info on ATP Oil & Gas? Add it to your watchlist.

At the time thisarticle was published Fool contributor Travis Hoium does not have a position in any company mentioned. You can follow Travis on Twitter at @FlushDrawFool, check out his personal stock holdings or follow his CAPS picks at TMFFlushDraw.Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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