Rajgopal (1999) examined the association between commodity price risk exposures and the market’s view of oil and gas price sensitivity. As this association was confirmed, the conclusion drawn was that the disclosures were ‘useful’ in the sense that they were reliable indicators of price sensitivity. It is important to note that confirming the veracity of the disclosures ‘does not demonstrate the incremental utility of these risk measures to investors’ (Rajgopal, 1999, p. 254). Hodder et al. (2001) examine this aspect of FRR No. 48 and their investigation results in three conclusions. First, how investors evaluate risk is a complex matter. Second, FRR No. 48 allows three alternative disclosure formats but readers will assess a firm’s risk quite differently
dependent upon the format used. Third, the disclosure requirements require insufficient quantitative information to be disclosed with the outcome that users will not be able to understand the firms’ derivative risk exposures. These important problems are compounded when firms do not fully comply with disclosure requirements, and in the case of FRR No. 48 Roulstone (1999) finds significant non-compliance occurring.