Leveraged ETF

A leveraged exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a financial product that uses leverage (debt borrowings) to finance investments in financial instruments like derivatives to multiply the returns of the underlying index. Leveraged exchange-traded funds are currently available on major recognized exchanges like Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and Nasdaq 100.

Traditional investment in ETFs used to track an underlying index on the face to face basis while leverage ETFs generally aim for two times or three times the underlying index. However, it may lead to either gain or loss which are usually quite high making the instrument extremely risky.

• A leveraged exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a financial product that employs leverage (debt borrowings) to finance investments in financial instruments like derivatives to multiply the underlying index's returns. 
• Leveraged exchange-traded funds are accessible on major recognized exchanges like Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and Nasdaq 100.
• Leveraged ETFs have garnered incredible popularity across multiple media, including individual and institutional investors. 
• In the current scenarios, various leveraged ETFs are in the market, spreading and including different assets, sectors, and industries.

Leveraged ETFs have gained extraordinary popularity across various media, including individual and institutional investors. In the current scenarios, there are several long term leveraged ETF in the market spreading and include different assets, classes, and industries. Among them are mostly double leveraged and triple leveraged ETFs at the same time.

• For professional and institutional investors, leveraged ETFs are an essential tool to gain in short term tactical and statistical strategies. For individual investors to leverage, ETFs are instruments to make higher returns with market movements.
• Best leveraged ETF that track DJIA (Dow Jones Industrial Average), Nasdaq 100, or S&P as an underlying index use financial products and debts securities that amplify every 1% positive gain to 2% or 3% gain in the respective index. The amount of income on the Leverage ETFs depends on the leverage being used in the ETFs. The term leverage is the process in which borrowed funds are used to buy or long on future and options to magnify the impact of price movements.

Assume Proshares Ultra ETF invests in the securities of US-based financial companies by tracking the S&P 500 financial services index. ETF holds around $1.0bn assets under management, and the expense ratio is 2%. The objective of ETF is to achieve returns of 2 times the return of the financial index.

If the trader holds the position in the ETF

by $10,000 and the underlying S&P 500 index moves up by 1%, then the ETF would produce a return of 2% during the same period. If the underlying index falls by 2%, the ETF will have to face a loss of 4% during that period.

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What happens if the underlying index moves in the opposite direction, which means that investors stand to lose their money if an underlying index falls by 1%. The leverage could magnify the extent of losses. In such scenario leverage, ETFs could turn out to be a double-edged sword in the sense that it can lead to significant gains provided the underlying index moves in a positive direction. In contrast, in other cases, it could lead to face investor’s significant losses if the underlying index moves in the opposite direction.

Investors should pay heed to the risk before they park their funds in long term leveraged ETF as the extent of losses in leveraged Exchange Traded Funds is greater than traditional investments. The existence of management fees and administration costs could further reduce the potential returns on the best leveraged ETF.

Leverage ETFs strives to amplify exposure to an underlying index with the help of future and options contracts. It does not mean that trading leveraged ETFs are magnifying the annual returns of the respective index; instead, leveraged ETFs are marked to market daily, and this process helps in producing the daily results. Over an extended period, the impact of compounding marked to market could potentially differ between the performance of funds and the underlying index.

Options contracts by their very nature provide their holder options and no obligations to buy or sell the underlying security at an agreed price on or before the expiry date. The writer of choice charges a holder of options an upfront charge called premiums, which allows the holder of opportunities to go long on a large number of stocks or securities. Therefore the options combined with investments in underlying stocks would further add to holding the securities. Similarly, the trading leveraged ETFs use the options contracts to add to the potential gains of holding the traditional investment in ETFs.

In inverse leveraged ETF portfolio investors make money when the underlying index moves in the opposite direction or when the underlying security or index declines in value. An inverse leverage ETFs rises when underlying security falls in value resulting in gains for the investors to make a profit from the bear market.

In addition to the charges mentioned above, like management fees and administration charges associated with an investment in leveraged ETFs, other costs are involved in managing the leveraged ETFs. Leveraged Exchange Traded Funds are considered more expensive as compared to non – leveraged ETFs. The reason being, for instance, to enter into options contracts holder is supposed to shell out upfront charges in the form of premiums as well as the cost of borrowing and margining. Most of the leveraged Exchange Traded Funds are considered to have an expense ratio of 1% or more.

Traders and investors use leveraged ETF portfolio to make money by speculating on the short term movement of stock prices. Investors avoid using the leverage ETFs as a long term investment strategy due to the higher cost of Leverage ETFs and high risk.

For instance, options, contracts have an expiry date, which is short term in nature and are traded in a short time as well. For traders and investors, it is not possible to hold an investment for the longer term as the leverage ETFs are created with the help of options contracts with short-term maturity or expiry. Therefore traders and investors have positions in leveraged ETFs for the short term. If they hold the positions for a more extended period, the returns will differ from an underlying index.

Some of the merits and demerits of Leveraged Exchange Traded Funds are as follows.

Merits

Following are the merits of leverage exchange-traded funds:

• The primary benefit of trading and investing in leveraged ETFs are the potential profits that could exceed the underlying index.
• The traders and investors have several securities to choose to trade in leveraged Exchange Traded Funds.
• Traders can also benefit in inverse leverage exchange trading funds when the underlying index falls in value.

Demerits

Following are the demerits of leverage exchange-traded funds:

• If the value of the underlying index declines, then the leveraged exchange-traded funds could make the investors face significant losses.
• The leverage exchange-traded funds are expensive due to higher management fees and operational charges.
• Leveraged exchange-traded funds are short term market investment strategy investors cannot use the leverage exchange-traded funds for the long term investments.

This has been a guide to Leveraged Exchange Traded Funds. Here we discuss the example, cost, and inverse of Leveraged ETFs along with merits and demerits. You can learn more about financing from the following articles –

• Deleveraging
• Oil ETF Types
• Anti-Dumping Duty
• Mutual Funds vs ETFs