Rally Hasn't Erased Losses for Bullish ETFs

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This year's stock market rebound has renewed investor confidence, but exchange-traded funds that are bullish on equities have a long way to go to make up the past year's losses.

The S&P 500 index has advanced 10% in the past month, erasing a third of its decline in the past year. Even with double-digit returns, leveraged ETFs that bet on rising stocks have recouped only a fraction of their losses since May 2008.

Among the 50 leverage funds that are bullish, 20 have hit the market in the past year. The remaining 30 have lost 63%, on average, during that time.

Bullishly Leveraged ETFs Long Way From Recouping 1 Year Losses Fund (Ticker) Rating Total Return 1 Month Total Return 1 Year ProShares Ultra Real Estate (URE) E+ 19.81% -89.26% ProShares Ultra Financials (UYG) D- 26.54% -88.61% ProShares Ultra Basic Materials (UYM) E 27.22% -80.51% PowerShares DB Commodity Double Long ETN (DYY) U -2.57% -75.46% ProShares Ultra Oil & Gas (DIG) D 7.52% -75.05% ProShares Ultra Industrials (UXI) D 28.57% -70.80% ProShares Ultra Russell1000 Value (UVG) E 16.94% -70.78% ProShares Ultra Russell MidCap Value (UVU) E 23.96% -69.07% ProShares Ultra Russell MidCap Growth (UKW) D 22.00% -66.74% ProShares Ultra S&P500 (SSO) D 14.60% -65.71% Source: TheStreet.com Ratings & Bloomberg 5/5/2009

For the month that ended May 5, the ProShares Ultra Financials Fund (UYG) returned 27% with its 200% leveraged bet on rebounds in Bank of America (BAC) and Citigroup (C). However, the fund is still down 89% over the past year.