Topic: How To Invest

Could you please explain how Horizons BetaPro NYMEX Crude Oil Bull Plus ETF works? The price of oil is up recently, but the share price has dropped. It is my understanding that this ETF is double exposed to the price of oil. Therefore, shouldn’t the share price be up? Thanks in advance.

Article Excerpt

Horizons BetaPro NYMEX Crude Oil Bull Plus ETF, $10.20, symbol HOU on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 41.5 million; Market cap: $423.2 million), is an ETF that aims to provide daily investment performance that is double that of the NYMEX crude oil index. It uses options in a way that aims for it to go up twice as much in a day as the underlying index. If the index falls, the ETF will drop by around twice as much. The key point here, however, is that this investment works best if you only hold it for a single day when the price of the underlying index is going up. Otherwise, the costs of using options eat into the value of the ETF. This ETF started trading at around $100 in early 2008. It moved up to $240 by mid-July. By year-end, the price of oil was down below $40, but the ETF was down near $10. You might say the ETF “outperformed oil on…