When I read about a – Leveraged ETF, for the first time – I wondered – who will be interested in such a product?
Leveraged ETF is: too fancy a product for long-term investors, or even other ordinary investors. I think a person who can be interested in an ETF, that is good, only, for a day (and understand that fact) should be sophisticated enough to buy derivative options himself, and create a similar product. This will save a lot of costs, and will certainly be a lot more exciting, than simply buying an ETF.
Hedging with a Leveraged ETF
Then I came across this interesting question in The Dividend Guy’s website – Could you hold 75% of your portfolio in stocks, and buy 3X Leverage Funds that short the market?
So, theoretically, you have 3/4th of your portfolio in common stocks, and 1/4th of your portfolio is invested in a product that shorts the market 3 times.
While, the idea itself is good, the daily nature of Leveraged ETFs do not allow them to be the right tool to execute this strategy.
A Leveraged ETF uses daily leverage and that is what makes all the difference – Daily Leverage. Let me take an example of how this would work:
Suppose, we have an Index and it moves in the following manner:
Day 1, Index Value – 1000
Day 2, Index Value – 1050 (Gain of 5%)
Day 3, Index Value – 1000 (Loss of 4.76%)
An ordinary ETF will give you no profit, no loss – in such a situation.
However a Leveraged ETF, that needs to lever itself every day will move in a different manner. A 3X fund will gain 15% on the first day, and then lose 14.28% (4.76 x 3) in the second day.
Here is how it will look:
Day 1, Index Fund – 1000
Day 2, Gain of 15% on 1000 – 1150
Day 3, Loss of 14.28% of 1150 – 985.78
So, even though the market didn’t move at all – you stand to lose money on your investment.
When looked at it from a Hedging perspective – your portfolio of stocks has netted you no gain, but, your Leveraged ETF has caused you a loss.
That makes this product really bad for hedging. Unless, of course – you have the time and ability to counter the daily leverage, and balance your ETF investment daily.
What else can you do with a Leveraged ETF?
You can lose a lot of money.
This product is not for any investor – who wants to hold their money in a derivative instrument for more than a week.
I share the same skepticism as Invest Skeptically, when it comes to this new product. The fee is high, tracking error should be high (although I don’t have data on this), it is a leveraged product – so there is a risk that the counter – party will default, and it is too complicated a financial product; to execute it successfully, and without losing a lot of money.
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Thanks for the link back and good article – shows how quickly you can go in the hole with a strategy like this.
The Dividend Guy,
Thanks for visiting and commenting. I always try and stay away from shiny, new and complicated products that are hard to understand. The risks outweigh everything else.
Great quality stuff.