Silver prices have gyrated this month amid the volatility in precious metals. For leveraged exchange traded funds, which are designed as daily trading vehicles, the swings have been even more violent.
These high-octane ETFs allow investors to play both sides of the silver trade, and magnify the market’s daily moves. The leverage resets daily, so they require close monitoring.
ProShares Ultra Silver (NYSEArca: AGQ) and ProShares UltraShort Silver (NYSEArca: ZSL) have seen double-digit percentage moves the past few days. ProShares UltraShort Silver, a leveraged “bearish” ETF for silver, seeks 200% of the inverse, or opposite, of the daily performance of silver bullion.
“A lot of financial institutions were moving into cash just for the worst case scenario, and that included gold sales for some of them,” said Bart Melek, head of commodity strategy at TD Securities, in a WSJ.com report. “What we’ve seen in silver is an awful lot of bloodletting and it went a little bit too far.”
Gold and silver ETFs were recovering some of their recent losses on Tuesday. [Gold, Silver ETF Surge Ends Losing Streak]
ProShares Ultra Silver