Regarding hedging - it's supposed to mitigate risk. I.e. a company fixes a proportion of their cost at a predetermined price. If they fix all of that cost it's not hedging anymore. A previous employer of mine did this mistake twice within the space of a couple of years. First, they fixed all their fuel purchases a few days before the crash in '08 (extra cost vs market USD 200 mill), then they did a rate swap (extra cost USD 80 mill). The CFO tried to argue against it, but the CEO and his rather inept right-hand advisor won the board over. Btw, every single director on that board was either-or Oxbridge/Harvard/MBA/ex McKinsey etc. For a company generating approx USD 1.3 billion in annual revenue these were dramatic times, and there was no way these losses could be compensated in any meaningful way through other cost cuts.