Following the dismissal of the class action lawsuit against ProShares, securities fraud attorneys are investigating potential claims on behalf of investors who suffered significant losses as a result of their investment in the ProShares leveraged and inverse exchange-traded funds.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York recently dismissed the class action lawsuit that was reportedly filed in 2009. According to securities arbitration lawyers, reports indicated that the plaintiffs’ claims that certain risks were omitted from the registration statements disclosures were rejected by the courts. Reportedly, these omitted risks were associated with holding inverse and leveraged exchange-trade funds, or ETFs, for periods exceeding one day.
In a warning issued by FINRA, the regulatory authority stated that leverage inverse ETFs are unsuitable for ordinary investors and that these investments should be held for a short time period only. Brokers have been known to sell ETFs and ETNs as conservative ways to track a sector of the market, or the market as a whole. However, complicated trading strategies are necessary to accomplish this, and using these investments to track a sector of the market may or may not be a conservative trading strategy. This depends on the sector of the market and assets in the account relative to the investment’s concentration level. For more information on ETFs and ETNs, see the previous blog post, “Investors Could Recover Losses from their Inverse ETF and ETN Investments.”
Following the dismissal of the class action lawsuit, investors who suffered losses as a result of their investment in the ProShares ETF are seeking alternative methods for recovering their losses. Those investors can contact a securities fraud attorney about filing a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration claim against the broker-dealer or financial advisor that recommended the investment. In many cases, firms, brokers and/or advisors can be held liable for investor losses if they failed to fully disclose the risks associated with the investment or recommended an investment that was unsuitable for the investor.
If you suffered losses in ProShares exchange-traded funds, you could recover your losses through securities arbitration. To find out more about your legal rights and options, contact a securities arbitration lawyer at The Law Office of Christopher J. Gray at (866) 966-9598 for a no-cost, confidential consultation.