From the category archives:

Leveraged ETFs

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have burst on to the scene in the last few years, raking in hundreds of billions of dollars in assets and prompting a major shift towards indexing strategies in the process. ETFs have empowered financial advisors (FAs), registered investment advisors (RIAs), Chief Financial Officers (CFOs), money managers, and retail investors to take greater control over their portfolios, pushing down fees and maxing out tax efficiency in the process. While ETFs appear quite simple on the surface, these securities can be quite complex. In order to get the most out of ETFs, there’s a lot that investors need to know about the structure, opportunities, and limitations of these securities.

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At times, it seems as if the number of ETFs available to U.S. investors will soon exceed the number of stars in the sky. That might be overstating things a bit, but the pace of expansion in the ETF industry has truly been impressive over the last several years. With multiple products seemingly debuting every week and very few shutting down (despite countless predictions to the contrary), the size of the ETF lineup has effectively doubled in a relatively short period of time. And there’s no indication that the product development front is going to be slowing down any time soon; issuers continue to file for both innovative and duplicative products, producing a pipeline full of hundreds of funds that could debut at some point in the next several months [see also 3 ETFs For A Euro Zone Double-Dip].  [click to continue…]

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As the ETF universe has expanded by leaps and bounds in recent years, investors now have tools at their disposal to accomplish almost every objective. From plain vanilla stock and bond indexes to hyper-targeted regional and sector funds, there are ETFs to bet on just about every asset class. And there are also a number [...]

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ProShares announced last week an expansion to its lineup of 3x leveraged ETFs, rolling out a fund that delivers -3x daily exposure to long-term U.S. Treasuries. The new UltraPro Short 20+ Year Treasury (TTT) will seek to deliver daily results that correspond to -300% of movements in the Barclays Capital U.S. 20+ Year Treasury Index, a [...]

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UBS continued to expand its lineup of monthly leveraged ETPs this month, debuting a product that is designed to deliver amplified exposure to international real estate firms. The new Monthly Pay 2x Leveraged Dow Jones International Real Estate ETN (RWXL) will deliver leveraged exposure to a benchmark that consists of REITs from around the world, [...]

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How To Play A Treasury Bubble With ETFs

by on March 19, 2012 | Updated March 21, 2012

U.S. Treasuries were the talk of the town in 2011 as this asset class shielded investors from the rampant volatility that ripped through equity markets as debt woes on both sides of the Atlantic ocean intensified. However, encouraging economic data releases on the home front have paved the way higher for stocks in recent months, leading some [...]

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Resurfacing fears surrounding the Greek bailout tipped markets south early in the week, although an optimistic outlook for Friday’s U.S. unemployment report has helped to ease uncertainties. Nevertheless, tumultuous trading throughout the week hasn’t been able to slow down activity on the product development front. Industry giants ProShares and iShares have laid out plans to launch a slew of [...]

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VelocityShares has significantly increased its leveraged ETP lineup, recently announcing eight new products that offer amplified exposure to various natural resources. The new ETNs will offer 3x and -3x exposure to natural gas, crude oil, and Brent crude, as well as 2x and -2x products targeting indexes comprised of copper futures. The new ETNs will [...]

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Despite some rather significant bumps along the road in 2011, many asset classes are now well into positive territory on a one year trailing basis as January draws to a close, riding high thanks to a strong finish to last year and start to 2012. Included on that list are a number of leveraged ETFs that [...]

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Direxion, one of the largest issuers of leveraged exchange-traded funds, will make significant changes to ten of its products next week. The Direxion ETFs currently offering 2x and -2x exposure to their underlying index will begin seeking to deliver daily results that correspond to 3x or -3x of the related benchmark. That change will obviously [...]

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Direxion laid the groundwork for several new products in a recent SEC proposal, including a handful of sector ETFs as well as an international equity offering. The Boston based issuer detailed plans to potentially ramp up its product lineup with four new 3x leveraged bull-bear pair ETFs. Triple-exposure products are the bread and butter of [...]

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VelocityShares, the issuer behind several popular ETNs linked to volatility-based indexes, made a big expansion to its product lineup this week with the launch of eight notes offering leveraged exposure to various precious metals. The new additions include both long and inverse offerings covering gold (3x), silver (3x), platinum (2x), and palladium (2x). Each of [...]

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