Investor Lawyers Blog
Investors who purchased shares in a leveraged inverse ETF or mutual fund upon the recommendation of their financial advisor may have arbitration claims. In today’s investment environment, many retail investors have been coaxed into investing in financial products beyond the traditional universe of stocks, bonds, and bank deposit products such as CDs. One such alternative or non-conventional investment product that has gained in popularity over the past decade with retail investors is the leveraged inverse ETF (more commonly referred to as an “ultra short fund”).
Essentially, leveraged inverse funds seek to deliver the opposite of the performance of the index or benchmark that they track. These ultra short funds employ a strategy akin to short-selling a stock (or basket of stocks), in conjunction with employing leverage, and in so doing these funds seek to achieve a magnified return on investment that is a multiple of the inverse performance of the underlying index.
For example, the ProShares UltraPro Dow30 ETF (NYSE: SDOW) is structured to provide a return that is -3% of the return of the underlying index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Thus, if the Dow Jones were to lose 1% in value, SDOW is structured to gain 3%. While in theory this might seem a straightforward proposition, the fact is that such ultra short funds are exceptionally complicated and risky financial products.