Pass on this ETF: ProShares Short MidCap 400 ETF

Article Excerpt

PROSHARES SHORT MIDCAP 400 ETF $22.44 (New York symbol MYY) provides daily inverse exposure to the S&P MidCap 400 Index—the ETF’s price will rise when the S&P 400 Index declines and vice versa. We generally advise against short selling for many of the same reasons that we advise against options trading, leverage, currency speculation and bond trading. In all of these activities, it’s a rare investor who makes enough profit to offset the risk involved. Institutional investors, particularly hedge funds, carry out around 60% of all trading in leveraged and inverse-leveraged investments. They generally use them as part of complicated multi-investment trading gambits. They also trade frequently, and in large quantities. This reduces the percentage costs of this kind of trading. However, the trading costs still tend to eat up the invested capital. Inevitably, investments like these will go down more readily than they will go up. That’s because investors have to absorb the costs of borrowing, entering into agreements with counterparties, etc., on top of…