Inverse ETFs Gain Acceptance in Market Rout

The blood bath in the stock market has thrust inverse ETFs into the spotlight.

Only 61 of the 839 exchange-traded funds tracked by Morningstar have produced gains this year. The top 25 ETFs are all inverse funds, which move in the opposite direction of their underlying indices.

The growing popularity of these instruments was underscored when Direxion Shares launched a class of inverse ETFs that seek to achieve 300% of the daily performance of the four Russell indices they use as benchmarks. They are the Large-Cap Bear 3x Shares(BGZ Quote), Small-Cap Bear 3x Shares(TZA Quote), Energy Bear 3x Shares(ERY Quote) and Financial Bear 3x Shares(FAZ Quote). Direxion Shares also started four "bull" ETFs, which aim to return investors 300% of their underlying indices.

"The volume on the funds has ramped up very quickly, particularly in the large-cap and small-cap funds," said Andy O'Rourke, vice president and marketing director at Direxion Shares.

O'Rourke credits the leverage feature as being instrumental in the initial success of the ETFs. "In our current market environment, it is becoming more difficult to obtain leverage," he said. "Our funds offer a simplified way to obtain leverage."

These ETFs are not for the faint of heart, given their immense leverage. To give a sense of how volatile they can be, one only needs to look at FAZ. It opened at $103.49 on Nov. 19 and nearly doubled as it reached a high of $201.86 on Nov. 21. By Nov. 26, the shares had plummeted to $61.39.

Although inverse ETFs have only been trading for a little over two years now, they have gained wide acceptance. "They are wonderful things to have. You can profit as the market goes in either direction," said Jim Porter, portfolio manager of the Aston/New Century Absolute Return ETF Fund(ANENX Quote).