Currency traders are growing more pessimistic on the euro as the European Central Bank tries to prop up a slowing economy. Exchange traded fund traders can also hedge against further weakness in the euro with inverse fund options.
The CurrencyShares Euro Currency Trust (NYSEArca: FXE) decreased 12.4% over the past year.
The euro currency has depreciated to $1.2004 Friday, touching a four-year low, compared to about $1.38 at the start of 2014.
Currency traders can capitalize on the continued decline in the European euro through inverse ETF options. For instance, the ProShares Short Euro (NYSEArca: EUFX) is designed to provide 100% of the inverse, or opposite, return of the U.S. dollar price of the euro, on a daily basis and the ProShares UltraShort Euro (NYSEArca: EUO) provides 200% of the inverse return of the U.S. dollar price of the euro on a daily basis. Additionally, the Market Vectors Double Short Euro ETN (NYSEArca: DRR) tracks the Double Short Euro Index, which also provides a -200% exposure to the euro.
Over the past year, EUFX rose 12.3%, EUO jumped 26.7% and DRR surged 29.4%.
Strategists argue that the euro currency will continue to slip in 2015 as the ECB is ready to enact further stimulus measures to prop up a flailing economy, reports David Goodman for Bloomberg.
Specifically, ECB President Mario Draghi is trying to bolster the economy and stave off deflationary pressures, which supported expectations that the policy makers could enact a bond purchasing program of its own. [2015 Could Be a Good Year for Europe ETFs]
“The euro-bearish consensus was struggling hard for the first half of the year, but it has come good as the ECB has driven rates down,” Kit Juckes, a global strategist at Societe General SA, said in the Bloomberg article.. “The best thing the ECB can try to engineer is still a weaker euro.”